About 6PAC 96.3 FM Tjuma Pulka

6PAC 96.3 FM Tjuma Pulka

Overview

Tjuma Pulka 96.3FM is a First Nations community radio station broadcasting on 96.3 MHz FM to Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, under the call sign 6PAC. It is run today by the Karlkurltjarraku First Nation Cultural Communication Centre — the community-owned organisation long known as the Tjuma Pulka Media Aboriginal Corporation — as one of the centre's three programs, alongside the Gravel Road Music Studio and the Karlkurla Art and Culture program.

The centre describes the station as an essential service and a "cultural glue" holding the First Nation community together. Tjuma Pulka provides a medium for local Wongutha and other First Nation voices connected to the region's cultural footprint, with access and participation in its programming structured around cultural protocols that maintain and rebuild social networks. Its stated method is communication that entertains and educates in a culturally safe and secure space, building pride in the community and encouraging people to make informed decisions. In a city whose radio dial is otherwise dominated by commercial networks and national broadcasters, Tjuma Pulka is the one service made by and for the Goldfields' First Nations people.

History

Tjuma Pulka was born of a gap in the local media. As the WA Indigenous Storybook records, around the time the station was forming there were many talented Aboriginal musicians in Kalgoorlie whose voices were not being heard on local radio: the city's stations were mostly commercial and did not play songs written by Indigenous people. With no media outlet representing First Nation musicians in the region, a committee of passionate community members was formed to create one. Tjuma Pulka 96.3FM began broadcasting in October 2005, initially operating under a Temporary Community Broadcasting Licence, with a governing committee of First Nation people from diverse backgrounds and strong support from non-Indigenous people in the Goldfields community.

A central figure in the station's story is Debbie Carmody, a Spinifex (Anangu) woman who began broadcasting in 1984 with ABC Radio in Kalgoorlie, Perth and Sydney before leaving the national broadcaster to work in community radio, and who served as Tjuma Pulka's manager. Carmody — whose own family history is bound up with the British nuclear tests at Maralinga and the displacement of Spinifex people — has been a prominent advocate for First Nations radio in the Goldfields, arguing that it gives First Nation people a "voice".

The station grew beyond Kalgoorlie, relaying its programs to 99.7FM in Menzies, 92.1FM in Leonora and 96.5FM in Laverton, and it was supported as a regional service under the federal Indigenous Broadcasting Program — a 2013–14 Department of Communications grant report records $313,500 to Tjuma Pulka (Media) Aboriginal Corporation to support regional radio station operations. The station has also been a platform for community cultural production: in July 2017 it devised and presented "How Languages Came to Be", a large-scale puppet production starring 50 Aboriginal children from Kalgoorlie-Boulder, performed at the Goldfields Arts Centre as part of the Wangkatja: Our Language Matters festival. In late 2021, Curtin University advised the station it would need to vacate its premises; a new home was found on the campus of Kalgoorlie TAFE, and in February 2022 the Community Broadcasting Foundation awarded Tjuma Pulka a $95,000 Quick Response Grant to cover the urgent relocation and an accompanying switch from analogue to digital infrastructure. More recently the organisation has partnered on "Legacies Karlkurla", an elders' storytelling and exhibition project with the Community Arts Network, recording Goldfields elders' legacies for future generations.

Programming and Content

Tjuma Pulka's programming is built around First Nation participation: local Wongutha and other First Nation voices speaking to their own community, in a format that mixes music, language, arts and culture. The station exists in large part to play the music that other Goldfields stations historically would not — songs by Indigenous artists, including local performers — and its sister program, the Gravel Road Music Studio, supports that pipeline by recording and producing local musicians. Karlkurla Art and Culture, the centre's third program, extends the same cultural communication mission into visual art and community cultural projects, and the radio station has itself originated cultural productions such as its 2017 language-themed children's theatre work.

Because participation is governed by cultural protocols, the station functions as more than a broadcaster: it is a meeting place where community relationships are maintained, where elders' knowledge is recorded and shared, and where health, education and community information can be delivered in a culturally secure setting. The Community Broadcasting Foundation describes Tjuma Pulka as an essential First Nations radio service for the local Wongutha community in Kalgoorlie, and notes that the station is completely volunteer-run, surviving on sponsorship, donations and grants.

Audience and Reach

Tjuma Pulka's core audience is the First Nations community of Kalgoorlie-Boulder — in particular Wongutha people, the traditional owners of the Kalgoorlie area — together with Aboriginal listeners across the northern Goldfields reached through its relay transmitters in Menzies (99.7 FM), Leonora (92.1 FM) and Laverton (96.5 FM). Those relays take the Kalgoorlie service into small mining and Aboriginal communities spread across a vast area of the Goldfields. Like other Australian community stations, Tjuma Pulka is outside the commercial ratings system and publishes no audience measurements; its significance is instead reflected in its treatment by funders and the sector as an essential service, and in two decades of continuous operation sustained by volunteers.

Digital Presence

The station's online home is tjuma963fm.com.au, the website of the Karlkurltjarraku First Nation Cultural Communication Centre, which profiles the centre and its three programs — Tjuma Pulka 96.3FM, the Gravel Road Music Studio and Karlkurla Art and Culture. The organisation also appears in community broadcasting and First Nations media directories, and its projects, such as the Karlkurla elders' exhibition work, are documented by partner arts and health organisations across the web.

Ownership and Organisation

Tjuma Pulka is owned and controlled by the local First Nation community. The operating organisation — incorporated as the Tjuma Pulka Media Aboriginal Corporation and now presenting publicly as the Karlkurltjarraku First Nation Cultural Communication Centre — describes itself as "a small effective agile team owned and controlled by the local First Nation Community". Its governing committee has historically been made up of First Nation people from diverse backgrounds, supported by non-Indigenous community members. The station operates under the call sign 6PAC and has held community broadcasting licensing arrangements since its 2005 launch, beginning under a Temporary Community Broadcasting Licence.

The operation is entirely volunteer-run, and its funding base is the classic community media mix: sponsorship, donations and grants, including federal Indigenous broadcasting support and Community Broadcasting Foundation grants — most recently the $95,000 Quick Response Grant that funded its 2022 relocation to the Kalgoorlie TAFE campus and digital upgrade.

Contact and Availability

Tjuma Pulka broadcasts on 96.3 FM in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia, with relay services on 99.7 FM in Menzies, 92.1 FM in Leonora and 96.5 FM in Laverton. The station is based in Kalgoorlie, where it relocated to the Kalgoorlie TAFE campus in 2022. Its website is tjuma963fm.com.au, and the centre can be contacted by email at manager@tjuma963fm.com.au. Community members interested in volunteering, recording at the Gravel Road Music Studio or taking part in the centre's art and culture program can reach the team through the website.