Friday, August 10, 2007

The Koori Mail - New England's national indigenous newspaper


For a little while, an Aboriginal colleague at the office has been lending me copies of the Koori Mail to read. That colleague is leaving, so I am going to have to take out a subscription if I want to continue to keep in touch.

The Koori Mail is, I think, one of the few if not the only New England publication with truly national reach.

The paper was founded in in 1991 by Owen and Sue Carriage. In 1992, it was taken over by a company called Budsoar Pty Ltd, jointly owned by five Aboriginal organisations on the North Coast of New South Wales- Bundjalung Tribal Society (Lismore), Bunjum Aboriginal Co-operative (Cabbage Tree Island), Kurrachee Co-operative Society (Coraki), Nungera Co-operative (Maclean) and Buyinbin (Casino).

The Koori Mail remains an entirely self-funding, wholly Aboriginal owned company. The board of directors comprises one member from each of the five Aboriginal organisations that own it, with twenty percent interest from each.

The paper's mission is to report news and relay advertising of interest to indigenous Australians and people interested in indigenous affairs. It covers news from around the nation and accepts contributions in the form of stories, poetry, news, photographs and artwork.

For a long time the paper was the only national voice of the indigenous community. Today it has developed into a strong fortnightly voice with an audited circulation of 90,000.

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