OPENING DOORS
As part of this year�s noise festival, the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (AMRAP) has joined forces with noise to fund 12 young up-and-coming radio makers from community radio stations across the country.
These 12 new talents will produce three short pieces of radio each, all focusing on a music theme and their works will be broadcast across SBS and ABC networks during the festival month of October. Meet one of them, 19-year-old Mundanara Bayles.
Radio has always been in Mundanara�s blood: her dad works as the General Manager of Brisbane�s Indigenous Media Association and is the Chairman on the National Indigenous Radio Service. He started out at Radio Redfern 20 years ago, so from the time Mundanara could talk she was on the microphone, back-announcing songs. So surely a career in radio was the obvious choice?
�No, I�ve only been involved in media for the last two years, before that I was working for the Department of Families in the Youth Detention Centre,� Mundanara laughs. �I was only in Admin, but I wanted to be in the professional stream so I could help the kids. When I walked into the Youth Detention Centre with keys on my belt the kids were like, �Psst Mara, are you a screw?� and I was like, �Nah, I�m in Admin, I pay your bloody Foxtel bills.� And they were like, �Do you know how to do that stuff? Man, you�re deadly!� They couldn�t believe I had keys, I was just this 17-year-old black girl!� she laughs. �But I�d just finished my Business Certificate and worked my arse off. I just said, �You know, I gotta open doors.��
With her mother passing away two years ago, Mundanara gave up working at the Dentention Centre and spent a difficult nine months as home, until her dad coaxed her back into working at his radio station one day a week: �He brought me back to life,� she remembers now. Currently studying her certificate IV in Radio (Community Broadcasting) at 4AAA radio in Brisbane (where she also works in Marketing & Promotions), Mundanara�s work with the Dentention Centre left an idelible mark. She joins the noise AMRAP project in order to delve into the worlds of young indigenous people in detention centres, interviewing kids about the ways they express themselves through music, mainly hip-hop � both in the centres and after they�ve been released. Broadcasting on the station on Sunday nights and currently employed with the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association, it�s clear Mundanara�s ties to her community are strong.
Check out the feature length interview in noise magazine, available in bookstores, newsagents and ABC stores. For more info check out amrap.org.au
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