<nettime> Media + Stuff from Kupa Pidi

[s|a|m_kupa_piti <sam@media.com.au>]

Kupa Piti (also known 'officially' as Coober Pedy) is essentially a
dusty opal mining town with a permanent residence of over 40 ethnic
nationalities.  It is located approximately 800km north of Adelaide,
700km south of Alice springs, in Australia's remote outback.

It is also currently the base to an eclectic group of protestors,
technoist musicians, performers and media makers. The Earthdream2000
tour is a mobile convoy of people from various backgrounds and
interests. But it does have a focus of addressing uranium, land rights
and sustainable energy issues, and delivers its messages through
parties and carnivals. Earthdream2000 and its associates are  camped
about 10km's out of town.

In Kupa Pity, a media centre is being established to increase the
awareness of the issues relating to indigenous people and culture, the
nuclear waste dump and uranium mining. IratiWanti is the name of the
campaign for the mediacentre - and this name translates to 'Poison -
Leave it'. The driving force behind the campaign and the centre are the
Kungka Tjuta - the women elders of the area. But the group is heavily
under-resourced. It has a tiny office, a basic laptop and is seeking
funds to get itself internet enabled.  Until then, the genorosity of a
local internet cafe provides a few free hours per week.

Kupa Piti is a small adhoc town, and some of its surrounding lands
including the Breakaways is visually spectacular and spiritually
special. Aboriginal people called the area 'umoona' which means 'long
life' but when Europeans came to search for opals, they began calling
it 'kupaku piti' - which means 'white man's hole'.

Right now, there are about 300 people from all parts of the world. Many
are part of the Earthdream tour, but there are some who are independent
protestors and media activists, providing support and collaborating in
actions in the region.

In the local cafe, where there is ready access to electricity, DV
cameras are communicating via firewire, dubbing, compiling. Others are
making short radio shows for city stations. There is plenty of mobile
media technology around.

A few weeks ago - some of the media crew videoing police violence
towards peaceful protestors. Visit
http://www.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1414 for more on that.
One of the big events for Australia will be 'Walking the Land - For our
ancient right' - a journey for peace, freedom and healing the land and
it's peoples.  The Walk begin from the shores of Lake Eyre on the 10th
June 2000, walking to the Sydney Olympic Games, arriving September
2000. The Walk will feature a ceremonial firestick -  far more symbolic
and meaningful than the gas lit torch which will lead the way to the
corporate games.

A number of people will be documenting the whole walk - but one of the
challenges is the lack of communications in the outback. Unless one has
a satellite phone, communications are only possible in the big towns -
especially those which attract tourists and provide facilities like
internet cafes.

If you can help / assist the IratiWanti campaign and especially are
interested in networking with women opposing the nuclear waste dump -
please contact lucybrown2000@yahoo.com ...

This email from sam@media.com.au

Some URL refs:

Lake Eyre Walk : www.come.to/lakeeyre

Reports from Lake Eyre :
http://www.active.org.au/adelaide/news/display.php3?article_id=21

Images from Beverley Protests : www.isnt.com.au/beverley/

Earthdream2000 : www.angelfire.com/mt/earthdream2000

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