Indigenous Australians’ information behaviour and Internet use in everyday life: An exploratory study

Introduction. This paper reports the first stage of an ongoing information behaviour research project undertaken with a rural Indigenous community in South Australia.
Method. Twenty-one Ngarrindjeri volunteers participated in the field study. Permission was granted and extensive community consultations were conducted.
Analysis. Questionnaires and interview transcriptions were analysed using the open coding method.
Results. Ngarrindjeri people’s everyday information needs included the gathering of
information on weather, jobs, entertainment, culture, education, and health services. The Internet (37.6%) was the most frequently used source of information where participants obtained information from social media, specialised Websites and search engines. However, non-Internet resources accounted for 62.4% of overall information sources and these included local sources such as families and relatives, Elders, and local TV channels. Ngarrindjeri participants were distressed by a lack of computer literacy, costs of maintaining a network, and inadequate facilities in the rural area. Despite this, their attitudes towards the Internet were still positive: they recognised the value of technologies and would like to distribute their culture online, with caution and in an appropriate manner.
Conclusion. The study provides insights into indigenous Australians’ information behaviour and Internet use in their daily lives. Future research directions are also discussed.