Mobile Phone Adoption and Use in Lockhart River Aboriginal Community

More than Mobile: Migration and Mobility Impacts from the ‘Technologies of Change’ for Aboriginal Communities in the Remote Northern Territory of Australia

“…Meanwhile, Sinanan' s study in rural Victoria (2008) identifies how mobile phones are used to spread information about movements to and from the community including plans for weekend trips away. Whereas significant concerns about mobile-phone uptake rates have long been raised on the basis of cost and cultural factors, early evidence suggests the 'market' has responded emphatically post-Next G. Dyson and Brady (2009), for example, found 80% of young people owned a Next-G mobile phone just nine months after their introduction to a remote North Queensland community.…”

“…The introduction of mobile phones to remote parts of Africa, for example, generated subscription growth rates in excess of anywhere else in the world during the 2000s (Brady et al 2008). In Canada, Perley and O'Donnell (2006) describe the widespread use of applications and devices such as video phones, iPods, webcast music and online games amongst First Nations youth in remote areas, and in Australia studies have documented very high ownership rates for Internet-enabled mobile phones soon after their release into discrete Aboriginal communities (Dyson and Brady 2009). But these trends are by no means unique to indigenous or remote populations with analysts describing similar outcomes in other emerging ICT markets like Eastern Europe and India (Kalba 2008).…”

“…It provides terrestrial mobile services for more communities and over wider areas than the CDMA network. Uptake rates for Next G phones have been both high and rapid, particularly amongst young adults (Dyson and Brady 2009). In further developments, Aboriginal school children in NT communities are each receiving a wireless Internet-enabled laptop at no cost, thanks to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) philanthropic organisation.…”

Can mobile phone multimedia messages and text messages improve clinic attendance for Aboriginal children with chronic otitis media? A randomised controlled trial

“…Improving clinic attendance rates and adherence to treatment is likely to improve health outcomes for children with treatable conditions. Mobile phone ownership in remote Indigenous communities has increased exponentially with nearly every household owning a mobile phone . Previous studies have shown that mobile phone‐based interventions in low socio‐economic populations can have significant benefits in terms of clinic attendance, long‐term adherence to treatment plans and medication compliance .…”

Blackgammon

“…It is estimated between 56% and 80% of young Indigenous Australians are now firmly part of 'digital culture' and are playing an increasingly salient role as the mediators of new media including social network sites (SNS) and online gaming [1]. As such, health promotion strategies targeting these groups' have a new space to engage the participation of this group.…”