Indigenous rights organisation, Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), is one of three winners of the $10,000 MySpace Impact award.

Users on the social networking website MySpace voted for the winners from among the top ten nominees.

ANTaR's Online Campaign Coordinator, Priscilla Brice-Weller, puts ANTaR's success down to the relationships they have been building with people on online social networking websites.

"If it hadn't been for the relationships that we have been building over the past year and a half on MySpace, we would not have received as many votes. People voted for ANTaR because they have been in contact with us on MySpace for quite a while. They know who ANTaR is and what we're about," Ms Brice-Weller said.

"Our MySpace friends are real people and we talk to them like real people instead of just giving them organisational propaganda."

Ms Brice-Weller said that MySpace helped achieve ANTaR's unique objectives.

"We're different to many social change organisations in that we're an activist movement committed to reconciliation. This means that while we're critical where we need to be, we also reflect on different points of view and try to bring opposing people together," she said.

"MySpace allows for this activism and diversity of opinion. As long as you're committed to Indigenous rights and opposed to racism you're welcome as our MySpace friend."

ANTaR started its MySpace page, myspace.com/ant4r, to make contact with people who were interested in Indigenous rights but didn't know what they could do to help.

"ANTaR wanted to reach out to people who were interested in the rights of Australia's Indigenous people but had not previously been involved in working to help solve the problems. We've given MySpace users a way to get more involved."

"We've used timely status updates, bulletins and blogposts to give people relevant things they can do to make a difference. For example, in the lead up to the apology we encouraged all Australian MySpace users to change their status to 'is sorry' as a way of demonstrating their support for the Stolen Generations," Ms Brice-Weller said.

The MySpace Impact awards seek to acknowledge organisations and individuals who use MySpace effectively to make a positive impact on the world. The three awards of $10,000 each were provided by Microsoft. The Oaktree Foundation and Australian Teens Against Animal Cruelty were the other two winners.

For information about the awards, visit myspace.com/impactawardsau.

Media contact: Gary Highland on 0418 476 940.