Digital inclusion in central Australia: what is it and what makes it different?

ABSTRACT

Based on an evaluation of the inDigiMOB project, auspiced by First Nations Media Australia, this article examines the role of a programme designed to improve digital inclusion for people living in town camps and remote communities of central Australia. Increasingly, Australians are expected to use technology to access health, government, utility, and education services. Over the last three years, inDigiMOB has been testing a model using local “Digital Mentors” to support a transfer of essential digital skills and knowledge to community members. The evaluation identified a number of enabling mechanisms that have led to several important outcomes. These outcomes are employability skills, essential access to technology, and basic literacy, as well as maintaining language and culture, which are supported through organisational structures and relationships. The article concludes by responding to the question: Does the “place” of central Australia change how digital inclusion should be pursued as an outcome?

KEYWORDS:

• Digital literacy
• digital mentors
• digital access
• Indigenous
• digital inclusion