Welsh and Australian indigenous television leaders will be featured guest speakers at the World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference. New Zealand’s national indigenous broadcaster, Māori Television, will host the first ever gathering of indigenous television leaders from throughout the world in Auckland from March 26-28, 2008.
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The leader of Welsh-language channel S4C, John Walter Jones OBE, will speak from his own experiences about the development and future of indigenous broadcasting. Mr Jones is chairman of the Welsh Fourth Channel Authority which was established to provide a wide-ranging, varied and high-quality programme service with a substantial proportion of programmes in Welsh. More.
The head of Australia’s first national indigenous television service will speak about the challenges faced by the new broadcaster. A member of the Order of Australia for her public service work, Patricia Turner was appointed chief executive of National Indigenous TV (NITV) at the beginning of this year and is overseeing the launch this month of the long-awaited service. More.
Esteemed kaumātua (elder) Huirangi Waikerepuru and a former Governor-General of New Zealand, Sir Paul Reeves (pictured), will play leading roles in WITBC ’08. A Taranaki elder, patron Huirangi Waikerepuru has been a key figure in the promotion and protection of the Māori language while conference Ambassador Sir Paul Reeves – who has had an extensive career in public life – was the first person of Māori descent to be appointed Governor-General.
A World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network will be launched as part of WITBC ’08. The theme of the three-day conference is ‘Reclaiming the Future’ and the aim is to unify, strengthen and promote indigenous broadcasters. Leaders, producers and planners involved in indigenous and public television can register their interest to attend at www.witbc.org.