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Mapping the Digital Gap 2025 Outcomes Report Launch
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) and Telstra are proud to launch the 2025 Mapping the Digital Gap Outcomes Report
From 2022 to 2024, the Mapping the Digital Gap team partnered with local First Nations organisations to undertake three annual research visits to 10-12 remote and very remote First Nations communities across Australia.
Guided by a First Nations Expert Advisory group, this supplementary project of the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) addresses a lack of data to understand the scale and nature of the digital gap for First Nations people and to track progress toward Target 17.
This 2025 Outcomes Report provides the final summary of findings from the first phase of this research in 12 communities. It updates the 2024 report, with new analysis and case studies for Access, Affordability, Digital Ability and Media and Information services. It provides updated ADII scores for the remote research sites visited, facilitating up-to-date comparison against national outcomes for First Nations and non-First Nations Australians.
Join us online to hear from the First Nations leadership, the research team, and industry partners, and get a first look at the key findings, analysis and stories from the first phase of the Mapping the Digital Gap project.
PRESENTERS
Naomi Moran
First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group and NSW Treaty Commissioner
Naomi Moran is a proud Bundjalung and Dunghutti woman and one of three independent Commissioners leading the NSW Treaty Commission. Prior to her role as Commissioner, she served as the CEO of the Koori Mail, Australia’s only fully Aboriginal-owned and operated national newspaper, and has led communities through major moments of community care and national significance.
Naomi brings over 25 years of experience across Indigenous media, governance, and community development. She is a member of the National NAIDOC Committee and the First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group, and is widely respected for her leadership in cultural facilitation, program design, and systems change.
A powerful advocate, speaker and presenter, Naomi is known for centering truth-telling, cultural integrity, and collective responsibility through deep listening with First Nations people and communities.
Lauren Ganley
Lead, First Nations Strategy & Engagement
Telstra
Lauren is the Head of Telstra’s First Nations Strategy & Engagement where she leads the strategy and ongoing governance of engagement with First Nations people and communities across Australia. Lauren’s work involves providing strategic advice, leading programs and business activities to improve digital and social inclusion and advocating for better outcomes for First Nations people and communities.
Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas
Director
ADM+S Centre
Julian is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. Prior to the commencement of the ADM+S Centre, he was Director of the Swinburne Institute for Social Research (2005-2016), and then Director of RMIT’s Social Change research platform. He also leads the team producing the Australian Digital Inclusion Index since 2015. His work ranges across the contemporary histories of new communications technologies, digital inequality and inclusion, and the internet and communication policy.
Diat Alferink
CEO, Torres Strait Islanders Media Association
Diat Alferink is from the Kala Lagaw Ya Language group from the Western Torres Strait Islands. Diat has been Chief Executive Officer of the Torres Strait Islanders Media Association (TSIMA) for the last 9 years and Editor in Chief of the Torres News for the last three years. With over 30 years experience in Indigenous Arts practice and management, Diat is a passionate advocate for development opportunities for First Nations arts, culture and media in regional and remote communities.
Professor Lyndon Ormond-Parker
Principal Research Fellow
RMIT University
Co-Chair
First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group
Dr Lyndon Ormond-Parker was born in Darwin and is of Alyawarra descent from the Barkly tablelands region of the Northern Territory. He is a cultural heritage expert with significant experience in the fields of history of medical collections, repatriation, archives, information technologies, materials conservation, heritage, and policy.
Associate Professor Daniel Featherstone
Principal Research Fellow
RMIT University
Daniel joined the ADM+S Centre in April 2021 to lead the ADM+S / Telstra Mapping the Digital Gap project, mapping digital inclusion and media use in partnership with remote First Nations communities across Australia. Daniel was previously General Manager of First Nations Media Australia from 2012-19 and Archiving Projects Manager to April 2021. He managed Ngaanyatjarra Media from 2001-2010, supporting media and communications programs in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of WA. Daniel has a PhD on evaluation and policy in Indigenous media and communications.
PARTNERS
Telstra
This project received funding support from research partner Telstra