In February this year the Western Australian Coroner Mr Alistair Hope, handed down his findings into tragedy caused by the abuse of drugs and alcohol in the Kimberly region, and again the focus of mainstream media and many of our politicians was narrowed.

The problem being, when their vision narrows they lose sight of all the other stories that are going on, stories of hope and rebirth and opportunity.

We are facing a crisis of drugs and despair which is decades old, but we are also experiencing a renaissance that is decades old. If you look at the mainstream media you'd be forgiven for thinking what the entire indigenous nation is in a state of complete collapse, when in fact through out the country indigenous people are standing up and using the power of education to retell their past and take control of their future.

The narrow portrait of indigenous Australia as a place without hope, without opportunity and without a future is a popular message in the mainstream media, and while it is true in part and in places, it is not the whole picture.

Throughout the country there are places like our own Goolarri Media Enterprises which, continue to provide hope and opportunity, by providing our young people with the skills they need to create a strong and bright future.

One of Goolarri's most recent initiatives "The Wings to Fly" developed a proposal for the Goolarri Centre of Excellence would extend Goolarri industry-based training into new areas - to strengthen our ability to provide major career and skills pathway along the Knowledge Economy for all Australians and we want our young people to be able to digitize our culture and ensure future.

As part of the Wings to Fly initiative we're looking at creative the Ramu interactive media tables (see attached PDF file below), which will integrate interactive touch screen technology with spatial, cultural and historical data. Not only will this project provide a tremendous skills base within our community, it will also provide significant commercial opportunities for investors and participants alike.

It's projects like these which will help to ensure traditional knowledge survives in a 21^st Century forum. We want our young people to be able to develop skills that will help them survive in a rapidly changing world. We want to become a world class educational facility and digital communications hub, on the doorstep of Asia.

The challenge we have is that integrated multifaceted projects like Ramu and Goolarri do not fit in with the siloed nature of government funding. Because our operations run across a number of Federal and state departments, getting funding for a single project will see us passed back and forth across a number of different agencies.

And often the funding we do get is so targeted it almost seems designed to fail. A case in point is recent state government funding Goolarri received for a number of teaching places. The funding is marvellous, and we welcome it wholeheartedly, but because it is specifically targeted towards teaching salaries, it leaves us in the difficult situation of have great teachers with no where to teach, and nothing to teach with. If only the different government departments were able to break down the silos and provide comprehensive support to programs which run across different departments, the projects they fund would have more chance of surviving, and producing tangible practical outcomes for all involved.

But against these odds, and the ongoing criticisms from the media, we have demonstrated that organisations owned and run by Aboriginal people can make a real difference. Using a hands-up, rather than a hand-out approach, we survive by securing industry and philanthropic partners, who also gain from our success, and welcome any government moves to build more flexible support programs which work across government departments and agencies, so as to expand the work we're doing into other areas.

The ongoing success of projects such as Goolarri depend to on this commitment from Federal and state government to provide holistic support and investment in services for Indigenous communities.

We need to state premiers and Prime Minister to understand that our stories aren't all of crisis and despair, but also of growth and renewal. We need to adopt a whole of government approach which responds to the crisis, but also responds to the success in order to really close the gap and provide Aboriginal kids with the same opportunities and expectations as the rest of Australia.

It is crucial that we see investment in organisations which create opportunities, we need funding for organisations which improve the well being of our communities by strengthening the people at their core.

Please don't cut our wings before we have a chance to fly.

Kevin Fong is Deputy Chair, Indigenous Stock Exchange, Managing Director of Goolarri Media Enterprises and Chairperson of the Outback Digital Network. He has been Broome Shire President for four years (1999-2003). Kevin has had many years experience in both the public and private sector, as an SES officer within ATSIC, his time with the Aboriginal State Investment Advisory Board, to his work with Stanton Partners and other consultancy groups.