HONOURING the lives of loved ones with grave headstones has made the Plummer family happy they are recognising their heritage.
The graves of its seven family members in the Tennant Creek cemetery had become hard to find. Only one had a plaque.
In April Central Monuments Headstones installed headstones, vases and granite surrounds on all seven gravesites. The family drafted the words on the memorials.
Mr R Plummer, a prominent Tennant Creek resident, began planning the headstone project with his family and the Central Land Council’s community development team in 2022. After his death in 2023 the family wanted to continue his work to commemorate their ancestors and help keep their identity, culture and history alive.
“It’s about honouring family that are gone,” said Marlene Plummer. “Every time we come out [to the cemetery] we never see anything. Now we know where they are buried and we don’t have to go searching.”
The whole family was involved in the project and decorated the graves with flowers and added gravel, said Aden Plummer. “They felt proud doing their bit. Everyone helped out with the little things to finish and make it look good,” he said.
He credited the late Mr Plummer with getting the ball rolling. “If it wasn’t for him we probably wouldn’t have looked into it. He was the one that started doing the slabs as part of the mob project.
After the death of the late Mr R Plummer in 2023 the family wanted to continue his work to commemorate their ancestors and help keep their identity, culture and history alive.
“He was always thinking about our family wanting to make headstones. The whole family feel happy with this, seeing their headstone on their parents’ [grave].
“It’s for the generations to come. They’ll come out here and look where my great grandfather is. He’s here with his brother. That’s what we were thinking,” he said.
The Purrurtu traditional owner (Plummer family) group funded the project with compensation income and matched funds from the Aboriginals Benefit Account.
Since 2020 the matched funds trial of the CLC and the National Indigenous Australians Agency has supported groups whose income from land use agreements would otherwise be too small for the projects they want to do.
Twenty-three traditional owner groups and 27 communities are taking part. The trial has been extended until 2026.
David McCormack said Yuelamu is taking action against expensive and unreliable power.
Rising temperatures and extreme weather are pushing up electricity costs, leaving more remote community households without power when they need it most.
Yuelamu’s Granites Mine Affected Area Aboriginal Corporation (GMAAAC) committee is setting up a community-owned solar microgrid to improve electricity supply to households. The committee is working with Original Power, which supports Aboriginal communities to move to renewable energy.
Yuelamu GMAAAC director and member of the Australian Government’s First Nations Clean Energy Advisory Committee, David McCormack, said residents cannot afford the high cost of rent and power.
“We use power cards, and when the money runs out we have no power. During extreme weather the power lines break and we are without power for 16 or 17 hours. This happens a lot.
“The food in the fridge goes bad and needs to be thrown away. People lose hundreds of dollars of food.”
GMAAAC director Cliffy Tommy, also from Yuelamu, said people can’t store their medications safely. “Some of my relatives have new kidneys and they need medication to be refrigerated.”
In summer Mr McCormack pays around $150 a week to cool two rooms in his home. “Air conditioning chews up a lot of money. That’s why we are looking at a community-owned microgrid to provide cheaper power to households.”
Original Power is studying how the community, three hours northwest of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), uses its power and what it would take to connect the microgrid to the Yuendumu power station, half an hour’s drive away.
The community is working with Original Power and other partners to understand the system load requirements and the grid’s capacity and power outputs.
Original Power will help the community identify government and other funding sources for the project.
While t h e r e a r e powe r disconnections throughout the year, when temperatures rise above 40 degrees disconnections also rise dramatically, especially in the NT.
Original Power used prepayment meter data to show that remote NT communities using prepayments averaged 55 disconnections per year while South Australia’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands averaged 14 disconnections and remote Western Australian communities 33.
It said South Australia prepayment tariffs were fixed at 10 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 31 cents in the NT.
Energy retailers in the NT are not required to report prepayment disconnections. As a result, energy insecurity in the territory is largely hidden.
The Central Land Council has called on the NT Utilities Commission to make power retailers report all disconnections in remote communities and apply the same electricity retail reporting requirements across the territory.
The NT-based Climate Justice Alliance predicts the NT is heating up dangerously. The Alliance’s Dr Ned Bible said she used publicly available Climate Council data to forecast how hot it will be in 72 Northern Territory communities by 2050 and 2090.
“It showed if we stay on our current path, by 2050 Alice Springs and Katherine would experience more than twice as many days over 40 degrees than now, and Darwin would have 92 more days over 35 degrees Celcius than currently.”
Dr Bible said remote communities in the north of the NT, such as Tennant Creek, were already suffering hotter days and nights as humid air from Darwin moved further south.
She said remote communities will be hit by the double whammy of extreme heat and unaffordable power. This combination will worsen chronic disease and increase the risk of heat stress, particularly for the elderly, the very young and those already sick.
The NT government is planning to replace 55 remote community diesel power stations with renewable energy. The CLC and the Northern and Tiwi land councils are working with the government to ensure the renewable energy transition benefits residents.
They want to bring the cost of power down so there are fewer disconnections. They also want residents to get training and jobs out of the construction and operation of the renewable energy.
CLC chief executive Les Turner said Aboriginal people need affordable power so they can survive and thrive on country as the climate heats up.
“Cheap and reliable power in communities like Yuelamu is essential to the health and wellbeing of families,” he said. “Our people are among the hardest-hit by man-made climate change and have done the least to contribute to it. It’s only fair that they are part of the clean energy transition.”
Yuelamu residents and Original Power are working on the development of microgrid to bring the cost of power down so there are few disconnections.
Lille Madden at the Mparntwe Telegraph Station where the ashes of her grandfather, Charles Perkins, were scattered.
GROWING up in Sydney, Lille Madden loved spending time in nature with her family and watching National Geographic TV programs. It led the Arrernte, Bundjalung and Kalkadoon woman to study and work in conservation and land management and become a passionate advocate for the environment.
The quietly spoken daughter of art curator Hetti Perkins and granddaughter of the first Central
Land Council chair, the late Charles Perkins, Ms Madden is also a storyteller. She presented and cowrote Healing Country a three-part ABC social media series where she yarned with young Aboriginal people about what they were doing to protect their country.
Now the 30-year-old is helping women to stay on remote country and keep their connection to culture women’s land management facilitator.
Ms Madden, who worked as an NT Parks ranger at the Mparntwe (Alice Springs) Telegraph Station for more than two years before joining the CLC, will build women’s skills by identifying training and ranger exchange opportunities. She will support women to present about their research projects at conferences and will network widely to attract women to the CLC’s ranger program.
“Women hold a lot of responsibility to families, communities, country and culture and my role is to support them in land management and help employ and elevate women within the organisation,” she said.
Ms Madden also acknowledged the work of her predecessors, Kim Webeck and Fiona Webb.
“It’s really important to acknowledge that this role and its funding was hard-won by the women all throughout the Central Desert.
“The work is an opportunity to connect with remote communities to help keep their people healthy, culture strong, sacred sites protected for many more generations to come,” she said.
Ms Madden has met about half the CLC ranger groups and says working with women has been a powerful experience. “I feel very lucky to be able to work with some amazing knowledge holders who all share a similar vision, cause and passion for their country.”
Moving to Mparntwe three years ago was a big life decision. “It was very important for me to go back to my grandfather’s country to learn culture and remain connected to that place.
“Aboriginal culture sees everything as equal and the world would be a much better place if people had this understanding.
“I constantly think about what our elders both past and present have done for Aboriginal people and what our responsibilities are as the next generation.
“What will it be like for my future children as well as for all Aboriginal children? What’s their connection going to be? I want to keep that connection strong.”
Gerry Rice, Valerie Curtis, Arana Rice, Judith Swan, Valerie Nelson, Dawn Swan, Frankie Curtis and Verna Curtis believe the Singleton water licence will destroy too many sacred sites and the desert region’s native plants and animals that depend on its groundwater
“FINALLY, someone is listening,” was the immediate reaction of Dawn Swan to the High Court of Australia’s decision in September to hear the appeal against Singleton Station’s water licence.
“I am very happy. We have people living on the land and this is their dream to stay here for future generations,” Ms Swan, a native title holder for the station, said.
Fortune Agribusiness’ licence to extract 40 gigalitres of groundwater a year from the station, south of Tennant Creek, represents the largest amount of groundwater ever given away by the Northern Territory.
The Mpwerempwer Aboriginal Corporation, which represents native title holders, has argued the licence will destroy too many sacred sites and the desert region’s native plants and animals that depend on its groundwater.
Native title holders described the High Court’s decision as incredibly important.
“The reason why we are fighting is because the amount of water Fortune [Agribusiness] wants to take from our land is too much,” native title holder Valerie Curtis said.
“We’re happy to share the water, but to us it just seems like they want more than enough and it’s not fair on us. It’s not fair on our country. It’s not fair on our future generations,” she said.
“This has been a long journey, and we will continue to fight for our sacred sites and culture,” Ms Swan said.
The case is likely to be heard next year and, if successful, the water licence would be invalid and likely to be sent back to the NT minister to decide on again, but this time in accordance with the law.
The appeal does not stop the NT’s environmental approval process and Mpwerempwer and other affected traditional owners are working with the Central Land Council and Fortune Agribusiness, the lease holders of Singleton Station, on the environmental impact assessment.
Before the assessment is finished the company is not allowed to use the licence to extract groundwater.
“We want to make sure the study is done properly so that Fortune Agribusiness, the NT government and the Environment Protection Agency hear how deeply Aboriginal people fear the damage this much groundwater extraction could cause to their country and culture,” the CLC’s chief executive Les Turner said.
Mr Turner said Mpwerempwer’s decision to pursue the case to the High Court shows that “water rights are inseparable from land rights and go to the heart of protecting culture.”
The High Court will decide if the NT Court of Appeal was wrong when it found that the NT minister lawfully granted the licence.
It will consider if the minister properly took Aboriginal cultural values into account or properly considered if there were exceptional circumstances that justified a licence for 30 years. It will also consider if the native title holders were entitled to the same procedural fairness as Fortune Agribusiness.
For example, Fortune was given an opportunity to review the water licence condition before the licence was granted. Native title holders were not given a chance to review the condition about assessing cultural values.
Ms Curtis said she was very excited the court would hear their story.
“It makes me feel happy. We want to fight for our rights, our sacred sites and our country, to be heard and for it to be fair,” she said.
John Duggie and Donald Thomas met with the CLC about the next steps.Continuing to fight for their sacred sites and water rights are George Anderson, George Brody, Dennis Malony, Rodger Tommy, Heather Anderson, Michelle Brody and Heather Tommy.
A Land Rights News article.
Amit Rotenberg was keen to work with local Aboriginal knowledge.
The Utopia rangers have taken two interns under their wing, showing them firsthand how they look after country.
Bree Bannister and Amit Rotenberg are part of an Indigenous Desert Alliance program that places future land managers with ranger groups for hands-on experience.
For two weeks, Ms Bannister, from Broome, and Ms Rotenberg, from Melbourne, worked with the rangers around Arlparra, northeast of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). They learned not just fire skills but about the cultural heart of the job.
The rangers liked having the interns along.
“They like to go around with us, see the country, learn about bush medicine and fire,” ranger Paul Club said.
“We’ve been showing them waterholes, sacred sites, bush plums– all the things we look after.”
The rangers showed the interns different burning techniques.
“There was a beautiful moment where [traditional owner] Sam started lighting matches and then a couple of rangers followed him. Then Helen [Kunoth] brought me over and showed me her technique of getting a big stick, lighting that on fire, winking at me,” Ms Bannister said.
“It’s been incredible, the rangers have been so welcoming, so funny and so generous in sharing their knowledge. I’ve loved every second of it.”
The four-week program began with a week-long intensive induction process at the IDA Desert Hub in Perth, where the eight interns met staff and were prepared for the field-based elements of the program, including the cultural and ecological aspects of Indigenous land management.
The IDA then placed interns with member ranger groups across the desert for two weeks of on-country experience, before a final week of reflection and debriefing in Perth.
Helen Kunoth showed off her fire lighting capability.
The program is about matching the right people with the right land management jobs when there are no local Aboriginal applicants.
“The internship was created in response to IDA members and desert ranger teams who wanted better support for bringing new people into the sector right way,” the IDA’s sector development manager, Zack Wundke said.
“This way, they can get hands-on experience, decide if it’s right for them, and, if it is, start building the relationships and skills they’ll need to succeed.”
Ms Bannister, a trained nurse from Broome, wanted to test whether she was ready for a career change.
“When this internship popped up, I thought what a great opportunity to give it a go and see if I’m good for it. The biggest lesson has been to step back, watch, listen and observe. Being able to do that trumps all your qualifications.”
Ms Rotenberg, from Melbourne, has a master’s degree in environmental management and would like to work with Indigenous knowledge.
“I’ve learned that ranger work isn’t just about burning or weed control, it’s about being on country, telling stories and passing on knowledge. The women here have been so generous with me, showing me bush medicine plants and telling me whose country we’re on. I didn’t expect them to be so open, so quickly.”
On one school trip, the women taught children plant names in Alyawarre while the men lit fires in the background.
“It was beautiful,” Ms Rotenberg said. “The kids were excited, and the ladies just looked in their element. Everyone was so into it and looked glowing and happy to be out of the classroom. It was really nice to watch.”
Utopia’s ranger facilitator, Paul Evans, compared the program with an apprenticeship. “It’s a deep, hands-on introduction. New coordinators and facilitators need time to build trust and respect with countrymen and women, that’s the foundation. Without it, people can come and go quickly, which can leave a long-term impact on the community.”
The program is part of building the steady leadership that helps rangers to take on more senior positions. “When facilitators stay for the long haul, they form strong relationships with rangers, share valuable skills, and help build the confidence needed for rangers to step up and take on those roles themselves,” says the Central Land Council’s Boyd Elston, who also chairs the Indigenous Desert Alliance.
Rita Pula drew on her fire burning skills to light up the land.
A Land Rights News article
Helen Wilson would like a good governance book similar to this one for the CLC’s rangers.
Few newly-elected Central Land Council delegates get through their first council meeting without a peek in the how-to-manual for being a council member.
Each table has copies of the illustrated booklet Governance at the Central Land Council and many members like to look them up when they have questions.
They usually have lots of them: ‘Why do we check if we have a quorum and what is a quorum anyway?’
‘How do I know if I’ve got a conflict of interest and what do I do about it?’
‘What is a proxy and why might I need one?’
The CLC’s good governance guide has all the answers because it is based on years of feedback from CLC members.
It has been around for almost two decades, but the third edition is the best one yet.
So good, in fact, that Helen Wilson from the Lajamanu-based Northern Tanami Rangers has asked to take copies back to her community.
“I would like to have a book like that for all the rangers,” she said. “So we can learn about governance too and about how the CLC works. There’s no big words in the book, so it’s all plain English. They broke it down so it’s good to read. I might read it to my kids and teach them.”
“I think this book is really good – what governance means to us. It will bring a lot of learning and teaching to the younger ones, like my age, and everyone else.”
The lead ranger has been thinking on and off about representing her community on the council someday, once she moves on from ranger work.
When she visited the Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park on other business in April she attended parts of the CLC’s induction and governance training day and started to leaf through the guide.
“The writing is all right, not too long and not too short. The pictures in the book are of local people, so that’s good.”
Another fan of the guide is governance trainer Maggie Kavanagh who ran the council induction during the first meeting of the CLC’s 2025-28 council term.
Ms Kavanagh has followed the development of the guide for many years and believes the latest edition shows that the council is taking governance support seriously.
“It is comprehensive, user friendly, has great graphics and is a terrific hands-on resource for council members to learn about their job,” she said.
Helen Wilson uses her deep understanding of desert animals to find bilbies.
Combining Aboriginal ways of knowing with scientific monitoring of bilbies makes for better research.
Lajamanu traditional owners and rangers are helping a researcher find bilby tracks, identify their desert environments and threats and develop conservation strategies.
Dr Hayley Geyle relies on the lead ranger of the Central Land Council’s North Tanami Rangers, Helen Wilson, and her community to find the shy nocturnal creatures. Together, they learn more about the size of their families and develop strategies to protect bilbies from cats and foxes.
“My work would not have been possible without traditional owners and rangers. They’ve taught me so much about how to track animals across this landscape. They have deep knowledge of bilbies–where they live, how they behave and what’s putting them at risk,” she said.
Studying bilbies over the past four years with Yapa has helped the researcher from Territory Natural Resource Management and Charles Darwin University gain clearer and deeper knowledge.
“It’s given me a whole new understanding of how these animals might be interacting across the landscape,” Dr Geyle said.
“It’s been really great to learn from elders and rangers and to bring that knowledge into our science. It’s definitely led to much better outcomes.” For example when looking for bilby poo, also known as kuna or scats.
“A study we published together showed that we were able to find a lot more bilby scats when we based our surveys on local tracking knowledge, compared to standard scientific methods.”
Ms Wilson said the traditional owners are keen to be part of the research.
“The community come out with us when we do the surveys. They really like to learn. It creates excitement.”
She said Yapa liked working with Dr Geyle because she listens to them. “We make a good team.”
Stephen Morice and Travis Penn installed a fox bait trap east of Lajamanu.
The two-way knowledge sharing gained national attention with Ms Wilson and Dr Geyle winning the 2024 Bush Heritage Australia ‘Right Way’ Science award at the Ecological Society Australia conference.
“I feel happy and pleased because I am doing my work for my people, the community and country,” said Ms Wilson.
Before colonisation, bilbies lived across most of Australia. Today, they’re found in less than a quarter of their former range, mainly because of feral predators and changes to how country is burned and looked after.
In July, North Tanami rangers Ms Wilson, Travis Penn and Kealyn Kelly and traditional owner Silas James took Dr Geyle to known bilby sites on the Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area to test a method for controlling foxes that doesn’t harm dingoes.
The team checked on spring-loaded baiting devices and the motion-sensor cameras they had deployed earlier to monitor how foxes, cats and other animals interacted with the devices. They also surveyed track plots and flew drones to look for signs of bilbies and other animals. The cameras confirmed what traditional owners already knew: foxes are very busy in the area.
The team tested the baiting devices with dried meat but without the poison capsule they can release when triggered by foxes.
It consulted elders throughout the process to ensure dingoes, which are sacred to the area, would not be harmed. The trap’s design included a special collar that stop dingoes from triggering the devices.
“Next, we’ll go through the footage with the rangers and traditional owners and have a yarn about whether this method is a good fit for the Northern Tanami,” said Dr Geyle.
The rangers showed how good they are at finding signs of bilbies from a moving car. Driving at 40 kilometres per hour they asked to pull over every time they spotted new burrows metres from the track. Ms Wilson collected bilby poo while Dr Geyle recorded the locations on her phone app.
The team expanded the search by scanning hard-to-reach areas with drones. Then the workers searched the ground where the drone footage showed signs of bilbies.
“There’s a few things I’ve learned, like recording the data on the iPad and the phone,” Mr Kelly said. “The cameras also, I’m trying to figure out how they work and everything, and trying to put them in spots where they can’t get destroyed by fire or some other animal.”
He said Yapa ways are front and centre of the work.
“Some parts where we do the surveys, some women or some men aren’t allowed to go on that site… so we just work as a team you know, try to divide the group and try to record as much data as we can.”
Dr Geyle said the work the team produced together was strong, both from a scientific point of view and from a cultural point of view. “It’s really helped us collect better data, by working with people who know the land the best and can guide us to areas where bilbies or foxes are likely to be,” she said.
“More than that, it reflects a whole different world view, one that is deeply connected to country and built on generations of lived experience. This perspective brings knowledge, values and ways of seeing that are just as important as the science. Without it, we’d be missing a big part of the picture.”
Silas James checked the motion sensor camera.
A Land Rights News article
Using a delicate touch Anton McMillan removes a top layer of dirt.
Since Ltyentye Apurte ranger Anton McMillan learnt how to remove swallow nests from rock art from the Kaltukatjara Rangers four years ago he has seized every opportunity to use his skills.
“The paintings tell our story. I want to share our knowledge,” he said.
He and his fellow rangers practiced the delicate craft of cleaning hornet wasp nests covering rock art on the Trephina Gorge cliff face.
Located near the creek bed, about a hundred metres from the carpark of the popular tourist spot, the once obscured painting is now clear for visitors to enjoy.
Kelvin Kopp and Joe Palmer sprayed turpentine to clear mud off the rock art.
Mr McMillan uses the same technique for all nests made of mud, no matter whether they were built by birds or insects.
First he sprays turpentine on the nests to soften up the dirt on and around the paintings.
He carefully uses a hammer to remove larger chunks of the nest and chips at bits of dirt with chopsticks before removing leftover dirt with fine pointed picks.
He then reapplies the spray and waits for it to dry. “When the chemicals dry off is when you get to see where you want to start brushing away,” he said.
Protecting the art is painstaking work. “You don’t want to damage the painting.” Mr McMillan said it’s best to “slowly take your time”.
Visiting the site for the first time Ltyentye Apurte traditional owner, Jeremy Williams, was glad the rangers were restoring it.
“It is very important. It’s been there for years and years.”
The buzz the restoration is generating around his community motivates Mr McMillan to keep going.
He hopes the rangers will continue to care for the paintings. “They’ve been here for a long time, so hopefully they stay that way, and we keep looking after it.”
Malcolm Hayes and Anton McMillan with their tools of the trade.
A Land Rights News article
Lukkanu has settled at Monarto Safari Park in South Australia providing his genetics to the intensive breeding program. Photo Hazel Griffiths, Monarto Safari Park.
When Tennant Creek locals rescued a bilby from its dead mother’s pouch in late 2021 it was the beginning of an amazing genetic journey.
After being told about a baby bilby whose mother had been killed on a road near Bootu Creek Mine Muru-Warinyi Ankkul ranger, Gladys Brown, travelled with family to rescue the hairless tiny creature.
Ms Brown, her niece Dianne Stokes and Ms Stokes’ daughter Amber drove two hours to retrieve the bilby from Ms Stokes’ son, Sebastian Waistcoat, who worked at the mine.
“It was a real family event. We all hadn’t seen a bilby before, we wanted to go and see what it looked like. First time looking at a small bilby. It’s a bit different to baby kangaroos. It had sharp nails,” she said.
“It was moving around probably missing its mother. I was cuddling it and making sure it was alright.”
Ms Brown named the joey Lukkanu, meaning star in Warlmanpa.
“I felt sorry for him losing his mother so I took him to the vet,” Ms Brown said.
Muru-Warinyi Ankkul ranger Gladys Brown named the bilby Lukkanu which means star in Warlmanpa.
After caring for him they gave Lukkanu to Tennant Creek wildlife carer Carol Hepburn who sought advice from the Alice Springs Desert Park and Sea World. She mothered, fed and provided him with round-the-clock care for a couple of months.
“I care for pretty much anything that’s not venomous, like wallabies, kangaroos and other smaller animals, ’’ Ms Hepburn said.
Once Lukkanu grew fur and became strong he was relocated to the Alice Springs Desert Park where his breeding journey began. Thanks to Ms Hepburn’s care during Lukkanu’s most vulnerable stages, he went on to greater bilby things.
As a wild-born animal he provided valuable genetic diversity for the Desert Park’s bilby breeding program and fathered two female and four male joeys.
Lukkanu’s male joeys Kulbar, Mr NT and Tyson were transferred to other captive breeding programs across the country. Kulbar was moved to Kanyana Wildlife in Western Australia, Mr NT to Charleville Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland and Tyson stayed temporarily at Monarto Safari Park in South Australia and bred joeys Clive and Trish before moving to Currumbin in Queensland.
Early this year Ms Brown wanted to visit Lukkanu and found he had moved to Monarto Safari Park which hosts the Zoo and Aquarium Association’s national Bilby Species Management Program.
Lukkanu had been renamed TC but after Ms Brown let the park’s Bilby Metapopulation Coordinator, Claire Ford, know his Warlmanpa name they changed it back to Lukkanu.
Dianne Stokes’ son Sebastian rescued the joey from its mother’s pouch on the side of the road.
In July Lukkanu met Gigi and they bred a new joey.
Now at the age of four (31 in bilby years) and weighing two kilos Lukkanu provides rare and valuable genetics to the intensive breeding program.
Genetic diversity is important to grow bilby numbers, prevent inbreeding and for overall healthier bilbies.
Introducing wild bilbies to breeding programs also helps bilbies to thrive out bush for generations to come. When bilbies are released back into the bush this genetic boost makes sure they have the best possible chance of survival.
“We can’t thank you enough… Lukkanu is making such a wonderful contribution to the bilby breeding program,” Ms Ford said.
A Land Rights News article
Rangers Bentley Brown, Kevin Abbott, Andy Mbitjana and Jeremian Okai practiced using drones to survey country at CLC’s Ranger Camp.
The Country Liberal Party government’s decision to break its $12 million Aboriginal ranger grant election promise is putting jobs, cultural knowledge and land management at risk across the Territory.
“The CLP is making a habit of betraying the trust of Aboriginal people,” CLC chair Warren Williams said.
“This is a slap in the face of the rangers who are out there managing country on the smell of an oily rag, protecting sacred sites and fighting fires, weeds and feral pests in some of the most remote areas of the Territory,” he said.
Former opposition spokesperson for Parks and Rangers Bill Yan, now the NT’s treasurer, said just before last year’s NT election that the CLP would continue Labor’s ranger grants.
He promised to deliver $3 million annually over four years to support Aboriginal rangers with critical training, equipment and infrastructure upgrades and job security – exactly as the previous Labor government had done for eight years.
“We were actually shocked that a government would so clearly promise, very directly, to fund a specific program unambiguously and without conditions, and then turn around in their first budget and break that promise,” Mr O’Leary said.
He said the backflip means rangers across the Territory won’t be able to afford the repairs, spray packs and protective equipment they need to do the job.
The CLC employs more than 90 rangers across 14 groups.
Mr Williams said their work “benefits all Territorians – from tackling feral pests to reducing carbon emissions – and the government’s broken promise puts this work and these jobs in jeopardy”.
Top End rangers are “outraged at this broken promise”, Northern Land Council chair Matthew Ryan said, adding that they were already significantly under-resourced to properly manage land and sea country.
“This government has revealed its plans to leave Aboriginal rangers behind,” he said.
Much of the Aboriginal ranger programs are funded by the federal government, but the ranger grants of the NT government have made the difference between groups limping along and thriving.
“Rangers will definitely scale back some of their activities, such as fighting weeds and tackling buffel grass, protection of sacred sites, which will mean fewer jobs on the ground,” said the CLC’s ranger program manager, Boyd Elston.
“Fewer opportunities for communities that really don’t have many other opportunities.”
“We were really shocked that the government would cut that kind of investment with so many positive outcomes. Kids want to be rangers and have the opportunities to move into those positions.”
NT environment minister Joshua Burgoyne said funding had been exhausted.
“Our government’s number one priority is law and order, including spending on frontline priorities such as police, courts and corrections.”
He said the CLP would “continue to work with Aboriginal ranger groups across the Territory to ensure we can support them in their important work moving forward”.
Mr Williams wants nothing less than a full reinstatement of the ranger grants.
“Your fine words before the election about supporting the bush ring hollow when you turn your backs on one of the proven success stories in remote community development as soon as the election is over,” he said.
“Our rangers and the country they care for deserve better. They will remember your backflip, as will voters.”
Kuyu pungu Mantua Nangala (with orange beanie) and Christine Michaels Ellis taught the kungka (girls) how to track.
The Central Western Desert Indigenous Protected Area was a long time coming, calling for two days of celebrations.
During one of the hottest March weeks in living memory, hundreds of traditional owners and their supporters gathered at Ilpili, a significant water site in the middle of Australia’s newest IPA.
As their people had for tens of thousands of years, they came from all over the four million hectare area and beyond to perform ceremonies and introduce a new generation to their country.
They also signed an agreement with the Australian government to look after it for all Australians.
The two permanent springs seeping from Ilpili’s limestone make it an important gathering place.
The site lies between Walungurru (Kintore) and Watiyawanu (Mount Liebig), and is Papunya elder Karyn McDonald’s grandmother’s country.
“This is an important sacred place,” she said.
“Last night I was crying because I was remembering how my ancestors used to stay around this area. And it was really difficult, winter season and hot season, to look around for food. When I came here I felt my ancestors whispering to me. I felt my tears,” she said.
“We’re really proud to look after the country, the rock holes, water holes and all the animals, for the kids’ future. For them to learn from us so they can pass it on to the future generations,” Ms McDonald said.
She said feral camels pose the main threat to Ilpili’s springs.
“They just come, drink, have a bath. That’s how they are spoiling our water holes. The rock holes as well. We need to keep our country safe.”
Ms McDonald wants the Anangu Luritjiku and Walungurru ranger groups to “listen to the traditional owners” as they look after country between them, following an IPA management plan.
For the IPA management committee, getting rid of buffel grass and camels is of the utmost importance.
It’s the “main thing” for IPA committee member Patrick Collins, and why he signed up for the Australian Government funds that will flow with the IPA agreement.
“Water first, before we can come and look after country. Camels always smashing all the water. We need someone to help us. That’s why we’re trying to get someone to give us a little bit of money and work with us to look after the water and push all the camels to somewhere else.”
The celebration was the reward for all the work traditional owners and the Central Land Council started in 2017.
“We’re happy today,” Mr Collins, a CLC delegate from Watiyawanu, said after he signed the agreement.
“We’re trying to look after country. We travel around and see all the kids and get all the rangers to work with us to fix my country.”
School kids from his community spent the first morning of the gathering in the sand dunes north of Ilpili, learning how to track animals from kuyu pungu (master trackers) from Kiwirrkurra, Nyirrpi and Yuendumu.
“We want to learn the kids to carry on what we’re doing, so we’re passing story on to the kids and they can pass on the story when they grow up,” Mr Collins said.
“We’ve been learning with our grandmother and father how to catch kangaroo and goanna. We want to learn the kids to track animals, which way the animals are going, which way they are turning, see fresh tracks and old tracks. ‘Oh, we might follow fresh tracks’. So we are following the right track. ‘It must be here, where the fresh track is’.”
Shasharlee and other Watiyawanu students brought their digging sticks to track in the sand dunes near Ilpili. Photo Mike Bowers.
After a couple of hours of tracking in more than 40 degrees heat everyone retreated to whatever shade they could find.
Luritja interpreters helped the kids to relax with kuyu pungu Christine Michaels Ellis, her mum Alice Henwood and Enid Gallagher, who talked to them in Warlpiri.
“I was really happy with these kids,” Ms Michaels Ellis said.
“We asked them to recount. That’s what we always do with our rangers. They recounted back to us what they had seen today – snakes, camel tracks, fox tracks, sand goanna, scorpion burrows and centipedes, and old cat tracks as well. And they were really happy. It was really great.
“I told them tracking is really important so they can pass on the knowledge from the old people. Without the elders there will be no more tracking, so they have to pass knowledge to the young people.”
Students from across the IPA prepared for the big day by practising purlapa (ceremony) with the elders, and some carved and painted their own small digging sticks.
The rangers of tomorrow visited rock holes to learn from elders and scientists how to test the water quality and keep them clean.
“If they become a ranger they can learn their kids,” Ms Ellis Michaels said.
“If they haven’t got songlines they have to record it. That’s what Warlpiri people do at Yuendumu. They get records from the old people, and take it to PAW [Pintupi Warlpiri Anmatyerr Media], and they save it.”
With precious cultural knowledge and nine threatened animal species to protect on the IPA, the rangers have their work cut out.
Those who have to make it all happen feel up to the task.
Lester from Watiyawanu got ready for inma. Photo Mike Bowers.
“We’ve got the princess parrot, the (central) rock rats, and we’ve got the great desert skink in these areas, but there’s so many other more projects that we have planned,” the coordinator of the Papunya-based Anangu Luritjiku Rangers, Lynda Lechleitner, told the ABC.
“This IPA gives us our own voice and brings all the communities together in managing our land,” she beamed.
“It’s also going to make it faster to deliver our work on the ground because we are all working towards the same plan.”
The IPA program is an Australian government initiative that has helped Aboriginal people look after the unique natural and cultural values of their land since 1997.
Under the Central Western Desert IPA agreement the CLC will receive approximately $1.7 million for four years to help traditional owners and rangers to protect country and culture.
Minister Burgoyne has broken his promise to the CLC delegates to “keep talking” about the sacred sites law changes.
The Country Liberal Party government has weakened sacred sites protections, breaking promises to the members of the Central Land Council.
The government rushed changes to the Territory’s sacred sites law through the parliament on 16 May, despite NT environment minister Josh Burgoyne’s promises to the council only weeks earlier.
The cattle and mining industries welcomed the changes, which mean that the certificates that set out the conditions for works carried out near the sites can now be transferred or have additional parties added – all without asking the sites’ traditional owners.
At the meeting, members disagreed with the minister’s claim that the proposed changes would “strengthen” the protection of sacred sites.
They demanded he properly consult traditional owners about the changes before passing them.
Mr Burgoyne told them he would do so and that the certificates would only be transferred for “the exact same work” as that covered by the previous certificate.
He said that traditional owners would be the ones who decide about ‘enforceable undertakings’ – where sacred site damage results in fines or remediation work rather than ending up in court.
He also said he would look into how traditional owners would be compensated if a site is damaged instead of the fine going to the government.
After the meeting Mr Williams wrote to the minister twice, seeking to hold him to these promises.
“I hope that you will be a man of your word,” he wrote.
Yet the changes the government rushed through parliament did none of this.
They include deliberately unclear wording.
For example, they say certificates can be transferred and include additional parties as long as the proposed work and use of the land are the same.
“‘Use of land’ is very vague,” Mr Williams wrote in the letter.
“Mining is a ‘use of land’, but a mine can be big or small and the conditions needed to protect sacred sites could be very different.”
His letter included a list of suggested improvements to the sacred sites law, all of which the government ignored.
His most important request was to not amend the law without the prior informed consent of the four Territory land councils and the board of the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority.
AAPA, the body overseeing the protection of sacred sites, also complained about the government’s lack of consultation.
“The Sacred Sites Act is meant to protect Aboriginal sacred sites, but Aboriginal people and their representative organisations have not been consulted on these changes,” AAPA chair Bobby Nunggumajbarr said.
CLC and AAPA member Valerie Martin asked the minister to consult properly with traditional owners before changing the sacred sites law.
AAPA said the Territory government had missed a crucial opportunity to modernise and strengthen the law and that the changes raised “many questions” about the government’s motivation as it “rush[es] through” amendments with just one week’s notice.
AAPA is worried about transfers of its certificates between proponents, and adding third parties without consultation with the traditional owners, particularly in relation to a proposed hotel development at the Darwin waterfront.
NT Labor accused the government of changing the sacred sites laws to help the hotel development go ahead.
Labor’s Chansey Paech said the bill “exists solely to clear the pathway” for the hotel.
“We have to keep on fighting.” Native title holders Annie Morrison, Ned Kelly, Michael Jones, Peter Corbett, Brian Kelly and Jorna Murphy told CLC chief executive Les Turner (second from right) to take their fight against the Singleton water licence to the High Court.
The native title holders and other traditional owners threatened by the massive Singleton Station water licence have asked the Central Land Council to take their fight for their water rights to Australia’s highest court.
Meeting with the CLC’s chief executive Les Turner in Tennant Creek, they said they want to start legal action in the High Court in Canberra as soon as possible.
The desert region’s native plants, animals and sacred water sites depend on this groundwater.
“I am worried about this station,” elder Ned Kelly told the meeting. “This Mpwerempwer is a powerful place. It covers all this area. It is a powerful story there.”
He is counting on the CLC to help the native title holding body for the station, to continue its long fight against the licence.
“CLC that’s the only way we can get it, they are fighting for us. We have to keep on fighting.”
“They have said many times that they will never stop fighting against the licence that threatens their sacred sites and their communities’ water security,” CLC chief executive Les Turner said.
“So we’ll consider all avenues open to them now.”
The native title holders also decided to take part in an assessment of the environmental impact of the company Fortune Agribusiness’ plans to grow fruit and vegetables for overseas markets.
The NT Environmental Protection Agency will check whether the company’s plans to protect dozens of sacred sites, hunting and gathering grounds and other important stories and places on Singleton are good enough.
Before that assessment is finished, the company is not allowed to use the licence to extract groundwater.
The native title holders hope that, if the agency investigates properly, it will see that the damage from the licence will be too big and the NT government will deny the company the environmental approvals.
Mr Kelly’s grandson Brian believes the stakes are simply too high to leave any stone unturned.
“If this goes ahead, there will be nothing there when we go look around,” he said.
“We need to think about future generations,” elder Michael Jones said, reminding everyone that remote communities in the region have struggled for water before.
“We moved to Alekarenge because there was no water. Old people carted water from Seven Mile to town. We don’t want that to happen to our next generation. Where will our young ones go?”
The judges ruled in May that the NT government did not have to follow the Western Davenport Water Allocation Plan when it gave the licence and that it can leave important regulations for later.
Ned Kelly (second from right) travelled to the Supreme Court in Darwin last year to protest against the Singleton water licence.
They also said the government did not need to talk to Mpwerempwer and the CLC about sacred site protection conditions in as much detail as it talked to the company about those conditions.
A High Court appeal against this decision and the EPA assessment are not the only things on the minds of the traditional owners.
The NT’s latest death in custody triggered protests around the nation, for example in Melbourne.
Federal government funding for the Northern Territory should be withheld until an independent commission investigates police conduct in Yuendumu’s latest death in custody.
The Central Land Council chair, Warren Williams said the NT was the only state or territory that does not have an independent body to investigate police conduct. As a result, the NT has failed to overhaul the culture of its police force.
Mr Williams, who lost two loved ones in one week, called on the Federal government to cease NT funding until it agreed to set up an independent 12-month inquiry, led by the NT Coroner to investigate the death of Kumanjayi White.
He said the investigation must target officers with a history of complaints and racist attitudes.
Mr William’s nephew Kumanjayi White died in police custody in Alice Springs during National Reconciliation Week.
Later in the week a respected 68-year-old Wadeye elder, who studied teaching with Mr Williams at the Batchelor Institute, died in hospital following his arrest at Darwin airport.
Mr Williams said the fact that the NT police have no independent oversight makes the desolation and sorrow gripping his community so much harder to bear.
“The NT government receives a lot of federal funding to address the inequality our people suffer. That funding must not be used for systems that hurt us.”
Letters from around 800 Territorians and calls by community leaders, legal experts and politicians for an investigations at arms length from the NT police have been dismissed by chief minister Lia Finocchiaro as “uneducated”.
“She understands my community needs confidence in the police, and that trust has been eroded.”
He also acknowledged “all the good people who gathered in sorrow and solidarity”.
A national wave of grief and outrage started with a vigil and smoking ceremony at the Coles supermarket in Alice Springs, where Kumanjayi took his last breaths in the lolly aisle, reportedly with an off-duty policeman’s knee on the back of his neck.
Mr Williams does not believe the protests will change the minds of the NT government.
“Let me be clear: Only money will force the NT government to act. Our lives are worth less than a chocolate bar to those in power and money is the only language they understand.”
He called for Ms McCarthy to respond quickly. “I hope the minister supports our request and ensures the coroner is well-resourced so they can conclude their inquest within a year,” he said.
CLC chief executive, Les Turner asked how this death could happen, more than 30 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended that complaints against police be investigated by an independent body.
Defence force personnel presented CLC chair Warren Williams with a wreath to pay their respects and acknowledge his loss.
“That an alleged shoplifting attempt by a cognitively impaired person ended in his death tells us that, tragically, too little has been learnt from the past.”
The Country Liberal Party government has been in office for less than a year and has already broken multiple promises to Aboriginal communities, while the CLC remains very concerned about the rates of incarceration and child removals.
“We don’t trust this government and its police force to keep us safe,” Mr Williams said.
“NT police talk of reform and anti-racism strategies is just that – talk. It’s time for the federal government to hold the NT accountable and force the change we so desperately need.”
Young leaders have been called upon to “keep our fire burning” as one of the country’s largest Aboriginal land councils celebrates five decades of fierce advocacy for land rights.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article may contain images and names of people who have died.
Thousands gathered at Alice Springs’ Telegraph Station on Saturday to mark 50 years of the Central Land Council, which today has 90 elected members representing more than 24,000 people in remote Central Australia.
CLC chair and Warlpiri man Warren Williams said the celebrations showed “the fire in our bellies still burns brightly, half a century on”.
“It’s very emotional because we get to remember some of our past delegates that have paved the way,” he said.
“There’s a lot of great achievements that have happened during [CLC’s history], getting our land rights back, our homes … people living on those homelands.
“50 per cent of the land that we’ve claimed is under [the] Land Rights Act, we’re still looking at some more.”
The CLC’s beginnings trace back to 1974, when elected leaders from around Central Australia gathered in Amoonguna, a community 15 kilometres south-east of Alice Springs.
Two years later the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976 was established, which paved the way for the newly-formed council to claim back and manage traditional lands.
Senior First Nations academic Marcia Langton, who spoke at Saturday’s event alongside former CLC director and former WA Senator Pat Dodson, said it was “the first time in Australian history” Aboriginal land rights were genuinely recognised.
“[The Act] still today represents the highest point of recognition of Aboriginal rights in land,” she said.
Ms Langton, during her five years as an anthropologist for the CLC in the 80s, consulted with traditional owners to develop land claim documents and lodge those with the federal court.
“I wanted every land claim to win. I think in my time we lost one, I think I worked on about 20,” she said.
“People’s understanding of their country, their knowledge of their country and their ability to give evidence in compliance with the Land Rights Act criteria for traditional owners was just astonishing … one of the great experiences of my life.
“In the nation’s history, [the land council is] a profoundly important institution.”
The celebrations on Saturday featured traditional dances, bands and singers, with crowds gathering from communities across the NT’s south to warmly support the performers.
A number of council stalwarts were also honoured throughout the day, and two truth-telling sessions were held.
One was a women-only event on the banks of the Todd River remembering the 1990s protests against plans to build a flood mitigation dam, which traditional owners say would have destroyed a sacred women’s site.
Many community members said the highlight of Saturday’s event was seeing young children take part in traditional dances.
“They learning the little kids as well for the women’s dancing, so they can grow up and continue dancing around their kids,” Arrernte traditional owner Phyllis Stevens said.
“The young generation will carry on the dances and stories and songs … keep the country strong and the land,” Annette Williams said.
Next generation to forge the CLC’s future
Mr Williams, who was elected as chair last month, said he would like to see young people step into council leadership roles and help the CLC “expand”.
He also said he’d like to see more women standing for the CLC ahead of the next council elections in April 2025.
“In that time [the CLC was formed] it was all men … it changed dramatically when women come on board,” he said.
“We [now have] about a third women on the CLC board.”
While the event was alcohol-free, organisers said they were disappointed their requests for local takeaway outlets and bottle shops to close on Friday and Saturday went largely unanswered.
Lhere Artepe was the only business to heed the calls, with the Aboriginal Corporation closing its three IGAs on Saturday.
“I commend Lhere Artepe for leading by example and urge others to show some responsibility and follow suit,” Mr Williams said ahead of the event.
An ABC news story.
The Central Land Council (CLC) has launched two new resources to assist traditional landowners to make the most of their native title rights.
The two booklets, How to Claim Native Title, and Native Title and Mining, were launched by the CLC at Ross River, with elected members travelling to the location an hour east of Alice Springs immediately after the council’s 50th anniversary celebrations on Saturday, October 5. The new resources are designed to complement existing booklets and information, and will be translated into Aboriginal languages to help people understand native title mining and claim processes under the Native Title Act (1993).
CLC CEO Les Turner said these resources will help empower traditional land owners.
“Knowledge is power, and these new booklets aim to return power where it belongs – with the native title holders…” Mr Turner said.
“This enables Aboriginal people to have a seat at the table to negotiate agreements when something is happening on their traditional country.”
The meeting at Ross River also marked the last meeting of elected members during this council’s term, with elections set to occur next April. CLC executive leadership will continue to meet every two months, with Mr Turner saying the council is hoping for more diversity in its applicants in 2025.
“Our chair and other members have been encouraging young people and women to join them on the next council,” Mr Turner said.
We mourn the loss of Elliot McAdam AM, former NT local government and housing minister, former Barkly Regional Council member and a man who spoke truth to power no matter who held it.
Mr McAdam was an outspoken and tenacious advocate for his people, especially women and children, and always put their rights and wellbeing first.
Central Land Council executive member and former chair Sammy Wilson recognised these qualities when he and Mr McAdam were youngfellas, mustering together at Everard Park Station in the north of South Australia.
“I grew up with him and he was like family to me. We loved riding horses. I’ve been learning from him. He never gave up for people. He made me think about how to look after the country. When I went up to Tennant Creek I always visited him.”
The Central Land Council members are proud to have fought side by side with Mr McAdam for alcohol restrictions in Tennant Creek in the 1990s, which he led as a senior staff member at the Julalikari Council, for Aboriginal rights and better living conditions.
As a prominent voice of the NO MORE campaign he spoke out passionately against family and domestic violence and as chair of the Barkly Region Alcohol and Drug Abuse Advisory Group he raised awareness of the root causes of alcohol and other drug abuse while working hard to address them.
He richly deserved his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia for his integrity and many decades of service to his people.
Our hearts go out to Barb Shaw, his daughters, extended family and many friends.
Warlpiri woman Alice Henwood is an expert tracker from Nyirripi.(ABC Alice Springs: Victoria Ellis)
“Nyiya Nyampuju?” What is this?
The call rings out across the red clay and sand.
The voice belongs to Warlpiri woman Alice Henwood from Nyirripi, a small community about 400 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.
“Nyiya Nyampuju?” she asks again.
The group of people, spread out like the tufts of spinifex across the land, slowly gather around to look at where she is pointing.
They are quiet.
Alice knows the answer to her question, but right now she is teaching.
Finally, someone speaks up.
“Wardilyka,” Bush turkey, he guesses correctly.
The questions continue.
“Ngana-kurlangu?” Whose is it? “Nyarrpara-purda?” Which direction?
A group of people are tested on their tracking knowledge.(ABC Alice Springs: Victoria Ellis)
Over and over she asks the group with each new set of tracks that are found.
There are many of the puluku, cow.
There’s also the ngaya, cat,the puwujuma, fox, the warnapari, dingo and excitingly, the endangered walpajirri, bilby.
Jeffrey Curtis has been waiting a long time for a new ranger hub in Tennant Creek, but now it’s come — and he’s looking forward to seeing how it helps young people in the remote Northern Territory town.
The new Muru-warinyi Ankkul Ranger base, built by an Aboriginal-owned construction company, is bigger and airier than the last, with modern amenities.
The ranger group had previously been splitting their operations between two locations, but the upgraded single site replaces what was basically “a very old shed”, according to Mr Curtis.
“I’ve been waiting for a new one for a very, very long time, maybe 10 or 15 years,” he said.
“I’m very happy for this new ranger hub and I hope it can do better for the future for our young ones.”
Ranger Jeffrey Curtis hopes the new Tennant Creek hub will benefit young people in the community.(Supplied: Central Land Council)
Rangers as role models
Muru-warinyi Ankkul Rangers was established in 2003 and is one of the oldest Central Land Council ranger groups.
The rangers care for country by monitoring plants, animals and water, but they have also mentored Tennant Creek high school students; up until the work experience program was stopped due to COVID-19.
Ranger Kylie Sambo said she hoped to restart the program.
“It [learning about country] starts early. If they know it when they’re young, it’s easy for them when they are older to get back to their roots,” she said.
“This is just a fun way of trying to work with non-Indigenous people on country.”
Ranger Kylie Sambo would like to restart a work experience program from the hub.(Supplied: Central Land Council)
Tennant Creek has long been facing problems of youth crime, but Ms Sambo knows first-hand the power of positive role models.
“When I was at school I would go on a lot of trips with Central Land Council and write up essays about what we were doing on country and that would give me credit with school,” she said.
“That helped me a lot with being on the streets and doing all of these things that are happening now.
“I watched them [rangers] as a kid first and then said to myself, ‘I’m gonna be a ranger some day’. And sure enough, I am.”
The Muru-warinyi Ankkul Rangers is one of the oldest Central Land Council ranger groups.(Supplied: Central Land Council)
New hub cooler and closer
The new ranger shed has a large fan, lockers, a tool cage, welding benches and, outside, a pressure cleaner and wash bay, while the house on the property received a new kitchen, bathroom, furnishings, solar panels and air conditioning.
A new conference space and server room will allow the site to be used as a training facility, while space for heavy equipment storage means the site can be a central hub for other ranger teams from Arlparra, Lajamanu, Daguragu, and Ti Tree.
The hub will become a training site for other ranger groups.(Supplied: Central Land Council)
Ms Sambo said having a new truck and tractor stationed at the hub will also be a boon, as central regional rangers previously had to travel to Alice Springs to borrow big equipment.
“[The hub] can make a huge difference with the time the rangers spend on roads to get to places and then come back to do the job, and then get that equipment back to where it came from,” she said.
“That’s been one of the biggest problems.”
The new hub has modern amenities inside and out, allowing for a wide range of uses. (Supplied: Central Land Council)
Modern way of caring for country
Ms Sambo said the new hub would help her work on country and learn about her culture.
“And I’m being paid to do that, which is very important, because with this society we live in, everything revolves around having funding, having money to do so,” she said.
“The ranger program that’s in place allows us to tackle jobs given to us by traditional owners and that is also deeply important to us, because we are connected to the country.
“This is just a modern way of taking care of country and taking care of family and taking care of the plants and animals.”
Rangers say the new hub will help them work more efficiently on projects including traditional burning.(Supplied: Central Land Council)
Mr Curtis said the rangers made him proud.
“[I’m] very happy with my group. We were established from 2003, but we’re still going,” he said.
“This ranger group has achieved a lot — a lot of training has been done and a lot of land management and conservation … it’s made us a stronger group.”
The old store in Engawala has been given a new lease of life, opening as an arts centre.
With few jobs in the community, Engawala’s many talented artists now have a dedicated space to work and earn an income from arts and crafts sales.
Tourists often drop in on Engawala, 200 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs, because the community is next to the Alcoota fossil fields. Those visitors now have a proper place to view and buy the artists’ work.
“The community are really supportive of the arts centre. Especially the board as well and Joy Turner, the elder for this community,” arts centre manager and Engawala local Janine Tilmouth said.
“We did this project so that there was a chance for people to have work and also to have their own community-owned arts centre, instead of someone else coming in and running it,” she said.
They first talked about turning the old store into an arts centre four years ago.
The community allocated a total of $145,000 to the renovation, which was made up of community lease money and matched funds from the National Indigenous Australians Agency.
Four residents then met with the Central Land Council’s community development team and Tangentyere Constructions to work out the details.
“The workers gave the old store a good clean-out and got electricity, benches and drawers,” resident artist Sharon Tilmouth said.
They boarded up some doors and fixed broken windows to make the building safe.
“We had to wait a while to get the work done, but Tangentyere Constructions did a good job,” Janine Tilmouth said.
“They listened to the community and suggested what would be good, with the sink and putting the drawers in.”
Tangentyere Constructions hired local residents Stewart Schaber and Leanne Dodd for some of the work and finished the job within six weeks.
“I helped pull out the fridges and I was painting the wall and glazing the floor. It’s the first time I’ve done this kind of work,” Ms Dodd said.
“I liked getting to work on time and communicating with the other workers.”
She also helped Tangentyere’s Aboriginal tradies Corey Coull and Adrian Shaw to coat the floor and install the benches and trolleys.
Ms Dodds is a local artist and helped the other artists with the designs painted on the floor.
The locals took over the centre ahead of the official launch in August.
“The arts centre looks good inside now. We’ve already started to work in the arts centre, doing paintings. I’m working at the shop now.”
Volunteers from Community First Development, a national organisation which connects skilled volunteers with Aboriginal communities, Taffy Denmark and Marella Pettinato were a big part of the project.
They helped write a business plan and sourced a $100,000 grant from the Aboriginals Benefit Account to paint the old store and build a shade structure. Now the artists can paint outside in good weather.
The money also paid for an eco-toilet, art equipment, insurances, governance training and project management.
During a year-long construction delay staff took part in intensive administration training.
“I got a lot of training from the volunteer Marella, for admin and bookkeeping and getting work-ready for the auditor. It’s a lot of work and I’ve learnt a lot,” said Janine Tilmouth.
Artists are also getting training from art professionals, and 12 community members have enrolled with the Batchelor College to complete visual arts certificates.
“The ladies have been screen printing,” Sharon Tilmouth said. “There was a workshop and one lady taught us. Lots of ladies have been using the arts centre and they’re happy with it.”
A $400,000 grant from the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support program pays for a website, the wages of two local art workers for two years and covers the costs of attending interstate art fairs.
Janine Tilmouth said the centre will build on sales through the art fairs and allow them to explore other markets.
“Maybe we can take our artworks to the cities, spread the word and add more to the website,” she said.
The Engawala art centre shows what can be achieved when Aboriginal people work with a lot of different people and organisations to drive their own development.
The money for this project came from the income the community receives from leases of its land and a three-year trial by the CLC and the NIAA.
The matched funds trial funds groups that use new income from land use agreements for community driven projects, but may not have enough money for the projects they want.
Young rider riding over the sun of the Aboriginal flag on the hip, a special feature of the skatepark the young people helped design.
Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) has become the first remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory to fund its very own outdoor concrete skate park.
Nicky Hayes, Eastern Arrernte man and Spinifex Skateboards founder, has been the driving force behind this project.
A keen skateboarder since the age of 11, he became one of the few Aboriginal skateboarders to compete professionally and the NT’s first Aboriginal qualified skateboard instructor.
His next goal was to bring the benefits of skate boarding to his community, 80 kilometres south east of Alice Springs.
Ltyentye Apurte started out with a single skate ramp in 2017 and upgraded to a wooden double storey skate course in the recreation hall.
It launched the outdoor skate park last September.
“This is my way of giving back to community,” Mr Hayes said.
“Having an indoor park, and then from the indoor park to this outdoor park here right now.”
“An outdoor skate park brings a bit more to the community, but also more to young people and families as well. “
For the past four years he has run weekly skateboarding workshops at the recreation hall and the basketball court with the Atyenhenge Atherre Aboriginal Corporation and the youth program of the MacDonnell Regional Council.
“I wanted the skate park to improve the wellbeing of the kids in Ltyentye Apurte,” Mr Hayes said.
“To ensure they stay active and to have an outdoor skate park where families can hang out and accommodate young people’s needs of having fun within a safe space for skateboards, bikes and scooters.”
The skate park near the store, footy oval and basketball court has become another place where residents socialise and enjoy sport.
Mr Hayes took his idea for the $436,600 outdoor skate park to a community meeting two years ago.
A local working group that plans projects with the Central Land Council agreed to fund some of the project cost from Ltyentye Apurte’s community lease income and income from a pilot project of the CLC and the National Indigenous Australian Agency, on the condition that grant funding make up the balance.
“The working group were happy to be part of something that is unique, to be the first community to have an outdoor skate park,” Mr Hayes said.
The community’s Atyenhenge Atherre Aboriginal Corporation and the CLC’s community development team helped the working group to get the project done.
The CLC sourced the grant from the Aboriginals Benefit Account that made the park possible.
Construction started last August, with designers Eastbywest and builders from Grind Projects working every day to complete the park in five weeks.
The local kids made the park their own by painting parts of it with their designs. A painted Aboriginal flag also features prominently.
The community has plans to put in a shelter and landscaping to soften the area and add shade.
Some of the best skateboarders in the country came for the opening of the park to celebrate this Australian skateboarding history event.
Mr Hayes hopes they will keep coming back.
“Bringing competitions here might be a great thing as well, down the track,” he said.
For now he is just happy that the local kids visit the park every day until dark, spending less time on their screens.
“It has been tremendous to see all the kids in the community having fun and enjoying themselves each day.”
Warlpiri elders and expert trackers are leading a program in northern Australia to teach younger generations how to read Country.
In June 2022, some of the most respected elders of the Warlpiri nation gathered for a workshop in Lajamanu, a remote town in the northern Tanami Desert, south of Kalkarindji. It was one of the largest such gatherings in recent years and, were it not for the flies, it could have been the Roman senate: here were the elders of the nation, gathered to discuss the great issues of the day. One minute they were talking about complex matters of law and ceremony and custom. The next they debated the intricacies of Warlpiri language and stories of the past.
Any resemblance to the ancient Romans was truly ended by the fact of women being at the heart of this gathering; they wore beanies and cast-off clothes. There was much laughter, mobile phones rang often, and arguments erupted over such topics as which species of snake had left behind tracks across the red sand nearby. This was especially significant, for the elders in attendance were also the Warlpiri’s kuyu pungu, or master trackers.
Many, perhaps even most, of those present grew up in the desert or out bush. There, they learnt to read the tracks of the animals: which animal left the tracks, where it was travelling, and how long ago it passed by. The kuyu pungu at the Lajamanu workshop were from a long line of Warlpiri people who grew up learning how to read the country. Over time, they entered into an intimacy with the land that went to every aspect of their lives – kinship, ceremony, survival. The current kuyu pungu, those gathered at Lajamanu, were the last in that long line.
By the time that most of the workshop’s participants had reached adolescence, their desert lives were if not lost then much curtailed. Travelling between missions, cattle stations and cities, they worked as drovers and domestic help, if at all, returning to country whenever they could. Aside from rare exceptions, their children and grandchildren had little opportunity to learn the old ways. Torn between the lure of the cities and the obligations of the past, the young Warlpiri returned to country at weekends, if they were lucky, where they picked up fragments.
This is why the Warlpiri elders gathered in Lajamanu. Part of an ongoing project known as Yitaki Mani (“Reading the Country”), the aim of the workshop was to find a way to bridge that gap between generations, to address the possibility that some knowledge may soon be lost forever, and to find new ways to teach a people who no longer grow up on country. Run by the Central Land Council, the program and the workshop – and other workshops like it across Warlpiri country – faced the most daunting of tasks: to distil thousands of years of lived knowledge into teaching materials and techniques that could work in a classroom.
Witnessing the sessions – which ran under the guidance of Warlpiri elders, pastor Jerry Jangala and Myra Herbert Nungarrayi and others, assisted by linguists and anthropologists – was like watching an encyclopaedia unfold in real time. Flow charts emerged, the frequent use of photos maintained the visual essence of the experience, and field trips – to Emu Rockhole or the track to Tennant Creek – kept things practical. There were times when momentum seemed to unravel. On one of the excursions, a goanna had the misfortune to appear close by. Consequently, much of the day was “lost” as everyone shared a goanna feast around an impromptu fire. But like other seeming distractions – a sudden recitation of a Dreaming story, or an unplanned detour down a side track to honour a cultural obligation – these moments deepened the stories and the ability of these kuyu pungu to tell them.
“We have to make sure we all have all the knowledge, that knowledge of how to read the country. And that knowledge comes in many ways,” says Jangala. “We need this knowledge if we are to get back the old Warlpiri ways.”
The establishment of the Yitaki Mani program reflects changes in Australia regarding First Nations peoples, and builds on those defining points in the process of reconciliation. Recognition of citizenship in 1967, the development of land rights in the 1970s and the outstation movement in the 1980s all represented the move away from the nation’s integrationist impulse.
Yitaki Mani builds on this process, drawing from another nation-shifting development: Indigenous ranger programs. Running for more than 15 years, the establishment of these initiatives has expanded across the country, and there are now around 130 federally funded ranger programs, with additional state-funded groups. Most of them operate on Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs).
So successful have ranger programs become that their funding became a campaign issue during the 2022 federal election. The Morrison government promised to double the funding for Indigenous rangers, to $686 million over eight years. Labor matched this commitment and added $10 million per year to expand the programs.
From a conservation perspective, every now and then work undertaken through the ranger program makes headlines, and is credited with significant successes. Indigenous ranger groups have, for example, been central to the discovery of new night parrot populations across Western Australia.
Stephen van Leeuwen, the Indigenous chair of biodiversity and environmental science at Curtin University in Perth, says ranger programs have enabled conservation activities to operate on a much broader scale than would be possible through scientific programs working alone. “You can’t have an IPA without a ranger program. And you can’t have an IPA ranger program without a healthy country plan. You’ve got a workforce and people who want to be there.”
Van Leeuwen recognises the importance of elder knowledge in the process of engaging the younger rangers. “Yes, you want to empower [First Nations peoples] by giving them meaningful work. But the elders in the communities want to manage the country, and that commitment quickly flows on to the younger people in the community. They want to look after their country … Lots of the threatened species that are still extant are on the Indigenous conservation estate in the deserts and in northern Australia, so there must be something good happening there.”
The ranger program is also driving a wider re-evaluation of traditional forms of knowledge and storytelling. Successes like that of the night parrot “demonstrate the power of proper two-way science”, says Steve Murphy, an ecologist who has worked extensively with traditional owners. “Indigenous people were highly attuned and acutely aware of all aspects of the environment that they were living in over millennia. So the observational-based science that they built up was incredibly detailed. In many cases, people aren’t living 24/7 on country and aren’t needing to get their whole subsistence from these landscapes. It’s pedalled back a little – it’s more a knowledge about place and landscape. But it’s still there, and it’s better than any [geographic information system] and remote-sensing analyst can give us.”
Much has also been lost, Murphy acknowledges. “Historically, a lot of that ecological knowledge would have been held by people, but it’s gone. We have to acknowledge that it has gone from so many places. And that is another very important and often overlooked role of two-way science – rekindling and rebuilding that knowledge.”
It is with this backdrop of loss and renewal that the Yitaki Mani project carries such potential. If it is successful, its organisers hope benefits won’t be restricted to the Warlpiri. The conceptual frameworks and teaching materials will become available to other communities, enabling them to tap into their own deep wells of knowledge.
It is, as ever, a race against time, something of which the elders at the Lajamanu workshop are keenly aware. “Some of the young ones are interested, and want to learn more,” says Jerry Jangala. “But some are losing their culture, their ceremony, everything. It’s not good for our people. It’s not good for Australia. Our country will be lost. That’s why we’re here. To teach them another way to learn. After all, one day I won’t be here with you.”
Join Bronwen Cavanagh, from the Ltyentye Apurte Rangers, and Kitana Shaw, from the Aputula Rangers, to learn new skills and help family protect country and culture. The two award-winning rangers have worked behind and in front of the camera to bring you this video.
The ignorance expressed about the voice is only surpassed by the lack of knowledge about the rigorous process that led us to it.
Nationals leader David Littleproud and Country Liberal party senator Jacinta Price with Nationals members and senators. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
I wonder who Senator Jacinta Price is referring to when she talks of “my people”.
She can’t mean the people I work for – 90 democratically elected Aboriginal men and women from the towns, remote communities and hundreds of tiny homelands of the southern half of the Northern Territory. People aged between 20 and 80, who are elected for three-year terms, meet three times a year out bush and who, for the past five years, have consistently expressed their strong support for the constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament the senator opposes.
A voice that allows local representatives to be heard about laws and policies that affect them and offer solutions informed by their unique knowledge and lived experience. What could be more practical? What could be fairer, more modest and unifying?
A federal plan to protect threatened species has neglected almost all of central Australia and will not stop extinctions, wildlife advocates say.
The 10-year Threatened Species Action Plan was released last month, highlighting 20 important natural places and 110 national species of concern to be prioritised for protection.
Mount Sonder at dawn in the West MacDonnell National Park.
Central Australia’s only priority area
Through the Northern Territory’s Central Land Council, traditional owners co-manage the MacDonnell Ranges National Park, which is the only priority area in central Australia listed in the federal plan.
Eastern Arrente man and land council chief executive Les Turner said rangers were poorly funded and unable to adequately manage the millions of hectares they were responsible for.
Ninety years after Pitjantjatjara man Yukun was killed by police and his remains sent to museums in Adelaide, he is finally laid to rest.
On the day Yukun was returned to Uluru, his descendants leapt into the deep, narrow grave to help ease him to rest as their elders looked on, weeping.
The ceremony, at the base of the rock on an unusually cold and rainy morning, helped ease the pain of almost 90 years of unfinished business that began with a Northern Territory police shooting in 1934.
Family arrive. The ceremony will help answer questions and resolve decades of doubt.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is an Australian government agency based in Canberra. The objective of the ANAO is to support accountability and transparency in the Australian Government sector. The ANAO is currently reviewing the governance of Land Councils in the Northern Territory. Governance means doing things the proper way in organisations, according to rules, culture and the law.
We would like to hear your views on how the Central Land Council (CLC):
Manages the operations of the CLC on behalf of Aboriginal people
Conducts consultation with Aboriginal people
Helps Aboriginal people and traditional owners manage and look after country
Reports on the CLC’s performance
And any other views you may have on how the CLC works
Please provide your responses before 30 September 2022 by: • sending an email to the ANAO at clc@anao.gov.au or • calling the ANAO on 0476 249 221 or • submitting your comments on the ANAO website at www.anao.gov.au/clc
Any information you provide is confidential – it will not be shared with anyone outside of the ANAO. Once we have finished collecting information, we will write a report that will be presented to the Australian Parliament in March 2023. It may contain some recommendations to help improve the governance of the CLC.
Alekarenge students are getting job-ready without having to leave their community, thanks to an innovative horticulture work experience trial.
The Alekarenge work experience pilot program is a partnership between Alekarenge Horticulture Pty Ltd and Centrefarm.
It helps middle and senior school students in the community south of Tennant Creek to gain valuable industry experience.
The students learn to grow crops such as garlic, pumpkins, cabbages, zucchini and watermelons alongside adult workers on the Aboriginal-owned farm near the community and also study horticulture at school.
Economic stimulus funding from the Aboriginals Benefit Account, administered by the Central Land Council, has allowed the project to expand its farm.
The project is using the $1,619,000 grant to buy equipment, build infrastructure and pay wages.
It has seen the first 10 trainees from the community graduate with a Certificate 1 in Agrifood Operations last year.
It has also sold fresh produce to Aboriginal-owned supermarkets in Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Alekarenge’s Mirnirri Store.
The students also sold the store zucchini chocolate muffins and zucchini fritters they made.
“The funding will go a long way towards providing training and employment opportunities,” Centrefarm’s Joe Clarke said.
The work experience trial aims to offer fulltime work for six to 10 students, or a higher number of parttime placements, before it concludes in 2024.
The CLC’s economic stimulus funding has assisted 14 Aboriginal businesses and organisations with a combined total of more than $17 million in approved grants in 2021.
The money is helping to set up new ranger groups out bush, fund an Aboriginal economic development forum in Alice Springs, support another horticulture business near Ti Tree and kick-start or expand several social enterprises.
One of them has created some competition for Central Australia’s only funeral service.
Desert Funerals, a joint venture between Ngurratjuta and Centrecorp, aims to bring down the high costs of farewelling loved ones.
“Desert Funerals brings new competition to the market whilst committing to culturally appropriate and affordable funerals,” Centrecorp chief executive, Randle Walker, said.
The plan for a not-for-profit, culturally sensitive funeral service for remote communities and town was hatched in late 2018 and the service moved into an office near the Alice Springs cemetery last October.
Almost $400,000 in economic stimulus funding has helped the social enterprise get started, with the business holding its first funeral service in February.
Mr Walker said the funds were “instrumental in assisting Desert Funerals to become a credible alternative funeral provider through funding for hearses, building alterations and funeral equipment”.
Tennant Creek is not missing out on stimulus funding either.
When the Julalikari Council’s Jajjikari Café re-opened at the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre in early 2020, after it had been closed for five years, the CLC’s stimulus funding allowed it to branch out into street food.
The Jajjikari Café smoko truck is literally a vehicle to train two Aboriginal workers in hospitality and customer service.
“The smoko truck drives around to businesses and the community living areas, serving home made fresh treats,” Julalikari’s Jacqulin Pereira said.
The $190,000 grant also paid for equipment for outdoor film nights and music events, a stage and a jumping castle for the school holidays.
The project goes some way towards meeting the demand for Aboriginal tourism experiences and quality catering services in the town.
The CLC’s economic stimulus project was made possible by an injection of $36.7 million from the Aboriginals Benefit Account in November 2020. For more information email aba.stimulus@clc.org.au, call (08) 8951 0667 or, or go to https://www.clc.org.au/aba-economic-stimulus-package/
Enid Gallagher leaned forward over the spinifex and clutched her chest in fear. Suddenly, she wasn’t just showing the three young men from Nyirrpi how to track brush-tailed mulgara, she had become the frightened animal.
The animal in question is a small, threatened marsupial Yapa call jajina.
“Jajina wake at night when the lightning strikes,” she said, and pointed to the burrow beneath the spinifex.
Her teenage students learn the difference between fresh and old kuna (poo) left by the small marsupial, and read the tiny footprints around their burrows.
They listened carefully to their kuyu pungu (master tracker), and filled out their work sheets.
Reading and learning the country (yitaki mani) is part of a workshop by eight senior Yapa knowledge holders, educators, Central Land Council rangers from Yuendumu, Nyirrpi and Willowra and other staff.
The week-long workshop at the Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, 363 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs, included Nyirrpi high school students so they could road-test new learning materials developed by the Yitaki Mani project working group.
The workshop is part of a new CLC project that aims to find out how senior Yapa knowledge holders pass on a lifetime of learning and caring for country to Yapa who grew up in settlements.
Unlike young people today, kuyu pungu and Warlpiri Ranger Alice Henwood was born out bush, west of Nyirrpi, and learned to live off the land. “I’m one of the last bush ladies,” Ms Henwood said proudly.
Now in her sixties, she learned to track as soon as she could walk and follow her parents and aunties on the hunt.
Ms Henwood’s journey took many years, but she feels a sense of urgency to teach her young colleagues.
“I am worried that when I pass away that knowledge will just disappear. That’s why we have to pass the knowledge to the young rangers now, as well as the young people, so they can pass on to their kids,” she said.
“I am worried that when I pass away that knowledge will just disappear. That’s why we have to pass the knowledge to the young rangers now, as well as the young people, so they can pass on to their kids,” she said.
Warlpiri Ranger Alice Henwood, one of the last people to grow up living off the land.
Yapa and the CLC want to fast-track that learning process so that young rangers have access to yitaki maningjaku – everything you need to know to track.
The project working group developed teaching and learning materials that young people can relate to, but that still foreground Yapa knowledge systems.
Kardiya (non-Aboriginal people) typically trap animals to identify what species live in an area, but this only works if something falls into the trap.
A skilled kuyu pungu, however, can tell you the size, diet, territory and hunting patterns, as well as the speed of travel, age and sex of all the animals, reptiles and insects that left tracks around the trap overnight.
“We teach whitefellas, and we also learn from them too,” said Ms Henwood’s daughter and fellow Warlpiri Ranger Christine Michaels.
“Like with the tablets CLC showed us how to store information about endangered animals.”
Yapa knowledge is not just about identifying the animal, it’s also about the purda nyanyi (sensory awareness) of the expert tracker, which is traditionally stored in their head.
Thanks to funding from the 10 Deserts Project, the Yitaki Mani team is developing tools and resources to maintain and promote this knowledge for generations to come.
“I’m getting a little bit sick now, so I really need to pass my knowledge to the younger rangers and the kids.
I’ve been working for a very long time,” Christine Michaels said. “Today the kids from Nyirrpi were really excited to go tracking for jajina and warrarna (great desert skink) and count the burrows.
I was really happy with that.“If young people want to become a ranger they have to work to know their country, spend time with elders on country, and not go into town drinking,” she said.
The fate of the NT’s largest ever groundwater extraction licence at Singleton Station hangs in the balance, as distressed traditional owners challenge the science behind the decision and the effectiveness of water laws.
David Curtis senior and junior visited Alyerernye, a threatened sacred site, with the ABC.
Robert Jampijinpa Robertson started the new Xtra Mile charter service in Yuendumu with GMAAAC funding.
Robert Jampijinpa Robertson’s vision for a Yuendumu-owned and operated transport and vehicle recovery service is one step closer to reality.
Xtra Mile, the social enterprise he started, began running chartered bus services in June.
The milestone followed two years of planning with the Central Land Council’s community development team and volunteers of Community First Development, a com-munity development and research organisation.
“Members were coming and asking if we can take them to Lajamanu, Papunya and all those places, and that’s when I started to think we need to start a bus service or something for our people to get to places they want to go,” Mr Robertson said.
Yuendumu residents have long endured expensive and infrequent transport services, and people traveling to Alice Springs are often stranded for days, missing work and school.
Mr Robertson successfully pitched the social and employment benefits of his bright idea to the community committee of the Granites Mine Affected Area Aboriginal Corporation in May 2019.
Later that year, the committee allocated almost $98,000 to set up a social enterprise and buy two Toyota coaster buses, and almost $27,000 for two remote transport services consultants.
In 2020 it contributed just over $164,000 towards the company’s first year of operations, enabling it to run a charter bus service and establish trust with its customers.
Xtra Mile aims to offer a regular and reliable bus service to the whole community, with return trips between Yuendumu and Alice Springs costing around $160.
Mr Robertson named the company in memory of the travel his family used to undertake by foot.
“In the logo is a little boy being carried by his father,” he said.
“My father used to carry me on his shoulder when I used to get tired, so he had extra load on. He would carry a spear and me on top of all the stuff he was carrying. Extra mile.”
Mr Robertson sourced an additional $250,000 from the Aboriginals Benefit Account, allowing Xtra Mile to employ a social enterprise worker for two years.
Xtra Mile set up shop in an office rented from the Yuendumu Women’s Centre.
The centre also provided secure parking for the buses, and the Wanta Aboriginal Corporation is helping with human resources, governance and financial systems.
Xtra Mile aims to generate enough income to cover a third of its operating costs in its first year.
It is also training and employing locals.
Four Yapa drivers completed commercial passenger vehicle training in Yuendumu, passed their theory exam, medical assessment and got a police certificate.
Two more drivers will undertake the driver knowledge test and a medical assessment in Alice Springs before attending the second Drive Safe NT training in Yuendumu in September.
The company hopes four more drivers will upgrade to a light rigid vehicle license class.
Mr Robertson is proud of what he and the community have achieved so far.
“I think the whole thing is great training and jobs for our mob in the desert, and to strengthen your own business and help people understand what things are possible,” he said.
The traditional owners of the Yeperenye Nature Park near Alice Springs have launched a walking and cycling trail between Anthwerrke (Emily Gap) and Atherrke (Jessie Gap) that they financed, built and gifted to the public.
After six years of planning and design and more than six months of construction, around one hundred people gathered at Anthwerrke on July 27 to celebrate the official opening of the trail with a smoking ceremony and a kangaroo tail lunch.
The traditional owners used $365,000 of the rent income they get for the jointly managed national park to fund the trail – the largest sum any Central Australian Aboriginal group has ever invested in public infrastructure.
“It makes me really proud that we did that — putting our money from the government back to the trail here,” traditional owner Lynette Ellis said.
“We did this trail for all of us here, for our young kids now and for our future generations.”
At a time when the industry needs it most, this new public trail will open up another section of the East MacDonald ranges to tourism and local employment.
“Not many tourists come to Jesse Gap, they are always going to the West Macs, so we thought it would be something good to do to attract them out this way,” Ms Ellis said.
“There might be some sort of tour around here with tour guides. We will be doing more projects.”
More than 30 Aboriginal workers built the 7.2 kilometre trail by hand, trained in unique sustainable trial construction by local company Tricky Tracks.
“It has been good learning new skills and being able to work hard and share this sacred place with everyone,” Mr Grant Wallace, a traditional owner and worker on the track said.
“I’m looking forward to using these skills for future trail work around here.”
“This on-the-job, one-on-one training will allow these workers to build and maintain trails across the region,” CLC CEO Lesley Turner said.
Cultural supervisors were on site during the construction to ensure important sites were respected and protected.
The trail which follows the contours of the East MacDonnell Ranges and will feature interpretive signage at the trail heads.
The trail features rest stops and is wheelchair accessible in two sections to ensure visitors of all abilities can benefit from increased access to the East Macs.
Mr Turner told the crowd that the trail shows what can be achieved when traditional owners and local stakeholders work together to realise their ambitions to the benefit of all.
“I want to thank the owners of the Yeperenye Nature Park for their generosity, inclusivity and forward-thinking,” he said.
“You have left a legacy that’s making us all very proud. Of course you were not only thinking of us visitors.
You had your families and young people foremost in your minds and you spread the work around.”
The Ltyentye Apurte Rangers have removed swallow nests from the paintings of their most significant rock art site – with a little help from their friends from Kaltukatjara (Docker River).
Anton McMillan put his training into practice at Utyetye.
Traditional owner Damien Ryder led the convoy of two ranger groups on a trip to Utyetye, a large open cave at the bottom of a cliff on the Santa Theresa Aboriginal Land Trust, to watch them restore the paintings covering the cave roof to their former glory.
He stood at the edge of a cliff that turns into a waterfall after heavy rains, and creates a curtain across the cave opening while topping up the bright green water below.
“The old people used to camp here,” Mr Ryder said, gesturing down into the narrow valley beyond the cave that the rangers have recently cleared of reeds.
Bernard Bell, from Kaltukatjara, clambered down the steep rock face with a cardboard box under his arm, ready to show his colleagues what he learnt at Walka, a cave full of rock art his group is protecting back home.
“I’m teaching them how to look after these paintings and clean off the mud nests,” he said as he inspected the mesmerising design of concentric circles in yellow and orange ochre that covers almost the entire roof of the cave.
Then he pulled a wooden stick and a small hammer out of the box and started to carefully chip away at one of the dozens of mud nests stuck to the ochre.
When only a narrow rim of mud was left he pulled out a spray bottle filled with a clear fluid.
“We spray it with methylated spirits to make the mud soft,” he explained. The moisture revealed even more paintings underneath the wet mud as he gently swept away the last of it with a soft paint brush.
Bernard Bell (left) showed Farron Gorey how it’s done.
“We use the brush to clean off the rest of the mud, spray it again, brush again, until it looks nice and clean. It works well. It never takes off the rock painting.”
“It’s been here for a long time and that’s why we need to look after it.” Farron Gorey, from Ltyentye Apurte, got the hang of it right away. “It’s a bit different from other ranger work,” he said.
His colleague Anton McMillan already had some practice, having learned the technique during a visit with the Kaltukatjara group.
“My first time was at Docker, where I was doing some training for this kind of work,” he said.
“Nobody has come out here before to clean out the swallow nests to look after all the paintings. It’s part of the history for this country, that’s why it’s important.
“I reckon the traditional owners will be happy with it.” Mr Gorey agreed.
“I feel good that we can continue to do this, so the old people can see it,” he said. “I want to bring them here to show them what we have learned. When they see this they are going to feel happy.”
Christopher Dixon keeps swimmers safe at the Mutitjulu pool.
Mutitjulu has its very first home grown life guards to patrol the community’s popular swimming pool.
Five young men undertook lifeguard training in January, and two have qualified as lifeguards.
Clem Taylor and David Cooley completed the course, and Daniel Breaden, Terrence Rice and Christopher Dixon are expected to qualify later in the year.
Mr Taylor and Mr Cooley are now working at the pool as fully qualified lifeguards, alongside the trainees. “I like helping look after the kids and learning about the pool,” Mr Taylor said.
While locals have worked as casual pool attendants and helped to run events, the lifeguards are a first.The lifeguards know how to help someone after a heart attack, provide emergency care and rescue people from the water.
They had to show they could swim at least 200 metres, tow people, and get them out of the water safely. They learnt how to make the whole pool area safe, how to prevent problems and accidents and how to report them. They also worked on their communication skills through role plays and practised how to prevent and deal with problems and conflict.
The training course, like the pool, is funded by the community’s rent income from the Uluru—Kata Tjuta National Park. Using their new qualifications and work experience, the young men can also apply for work at the Yulara pool.
The new lifeguards have brought the community one step closer to its goal of managing the pool all by itself.
Native title holders on Singleton Station.
Native title holders and community residents have asked the Central Land Council to fight a water licence decision on Singleton Station if it is approved unchanged. Fortune Agribusiness has applied to pump up more than 40 billion litres of water annually, for 30 years, to grow fruit and vegetables on the pastoral lease south of Tennant Creek.
If the government grants the controversial application, the company would be able to take, free of charge, every 12 months more than four times as much drinking water as Alice Springs uses in a year.
It would be the largest private water allocation in the Territory’s history and would irrigate one of Australia’s biggest horticulture projects.
Native title holder Roger Tommy said the company is asking for too much. “We don’t want them to take all that water, we may have no water left for our communities,” he said. “They can have two bores, but no more than that. If you got a big mob of bore, you’re using up too much water.”
Senior knowledge holder Donald Thompson, who grew up in the region and worked around Singleton, said the proposal may be too risky.
“We’re worried that the country will dry out, and with no water there’ll be losses of all the animals and wildlife,” he said. “That’s why we’re talking really strongly to the government about this proposal.”
Traditional owners, residents, businesses and scientists are concerned that too little is known about how the company’s plan would affect native plants, animals, sacred sites and community drinking water in years to come.
A big meeting of native title holders and affected residents in Tennant Creek in February said independent water scientists must be allowed to check the licence, its conditions, the company’s ‘adaptive management framework’ and the way the government plans to manage the licence – a process known as ‘peer review’.
If that review shows it is too unsustainable and risky the meeting wants the CLC to fight the decision.
“We’re worried about the water levels dropping and we want to consult with people who know how much water there really is,” Mr Thompson said. “We got to know how much [water] is in the ground because that’s an important resource that could be lost. That knowledge should inform the decision. The government should find it out first, before they start making big project decisions.”
Elder Michael Jones implored the meeting to think about future generations. “Twenty to 40 years down the track – will the traditional owners have enough water?” he asked.
“Our kids got to survive, and the animals. They need to do more testing about how long that water is going to last.”
Independent water scientist Dr Ryan Vogwill has reviewed the Northern Territory Government’s water planning on which the Fortune Agribusiness application is based. He warned the meeting that the planning is “high risk” because it is based on too little information.
Dr Vogwill said the planning ignores the most culturally and ecologically important places, such as wetlands, springs and soaks, an oversight he called a “major gap”.
“There are more gaps than there are areas with a high level of understanding”, he said.
Water expert Dr Dylan Irvine, from Charles Darwin University, has also criticised the lack of data. “There’s modelling from Fortune Agribusiness. The issue with that model is it’s based on scant data, and we don’t know what the impact on salinity is going to be in the shallow aquifer region,” he said.
Dr Vogwill found there were “high levels of uncertainty” about the modelling and about how plants and animals would be affected. He wrote “the Murray-Darling is a good example of what happens” when lots of water is taken out of a system before we know what will happen down the track.
Tim Bond, a senior government water planner, told the meeting “we know enough about what’s likely to happen. We have put together a model based on our best estimate”. He said more research and monitoring would happen after a licence decision.
The government plans to practice ‘adaptive management’, saying it could cut back the water allocation if there turns out to be less water than it thinks.
The company would “get a little bit of water and if all goes well they get a bit more”, Mr Bond said.
“Adaptive management means that you are reacting to a problem when it has already happened,” executive member Michael Liddle countered. “There’s too many unknowns to take this risk.”
“You can’t give us a straight answer and we’re not happy with the whole process,” he said.
The process “is fraught with risk that may result in undesirable impacts on the environment or big reductions in allocations that may have serious project feasibility or negative economic outcomes,” according to Dr Vogwill.
No wonder small Aboriginal-owned horticulture pilot projects around Singleton are feeling threatened.
Centrefarm applied on behalf of the Iliyarne Aboriginal Land Trust for a 1,000 megalitre water licence for a horticultural operation south of Wycliffe Well. The company also trains young people at its horticulture training centre near Alekarenge, with promising results.
It fears these projects could become unviable if all of the Singleton application is granted.
“Teenagers who have been disengaged from school have been attending to learn about horticulture and are growing, harvesting and selling their own veggies to the community,” Centrefarm’s Joe Clarke said.
“The project is giving these young people opportunities to work on country, but its future depends on nearby Aboriginal-owned projects having sustainable access to groundwater that could be threatened by the massive Singleton application.
“It would be a real shame if the allocation put our training centre and Iliyarne’s plans at risk. These young people are the future and they must be the priority,” he said.
Native title holder Heather Anderson struggled with the idea that horticulture companies would get the water for free from the NT Government. “Water is not for free, water belongs to the land. It should stay there,” she told the Guardian news site.
The ‘free’ water is worth a lot of money, and that attracts companies to the Territory. “If this water was being extracted from the Murray Darling Basin, we’d be talking in the order of $20 million a year for that water use,” Dr Irvine told the ABC.
Mr Liddle does not believe the government will ask the company to pull out fruit trees and irrigation lines later on, if its “guesswork” turns out to be wrong.
Native title holders with their painting of Singleton Station.
“No future government will have the political will to cut back the water allocations of companies that have already invested millions of dollars,” he said.
Nobody may find out if there are problems because the government trusts the company to do the monitoring.
Maureen O’Keefe grew up around Singleton, where her parents worked and met.
“We’re not worrying about money, we’re worrying about life,” she told the meeting.
“We have climate change and we don’t have rainfall every year. I’ve been crying for this country. All the springs will be dried out. Then we got no name for them anymore. All the cultural sites will suffer and we will have no stories to tell for our kids,” she said.
CLC chief executive Joe Martin-Jard is also concerned that the government’s planning does not take into account global heating. “We’re mining a very precious, finite fossil resource that is likely to dwindle even further due to climate change and more frequent droughts,” he said.
“It would be extraordinary if it made such a far reaching decision based on assumptions and guesswork.”
Environment groups said the application should be rejected because even small errors in the government’s modelling could cause irreversible problems.
“There is no guarantee of how or when those water resources and the communities and ecosystems that rely on them would recover,” Kirsty Howey, from Environment NT, told the Guardian.
“And we’re not sure that they would, in fact, ever recover. That means that extreme caution should be exercised.”
CLC executive member Michael Liddle agreed. “Our water is too precious to rush this or get it wrong.”
Harry Jakamarra Nelson had planned to sit down with Land Rights News for more than a year to talk about his long and distinguished life as one of the nation’s land rights pioneers.
Sadly, an accident, followed by long months in hospital in Adelaide and Alice Springs, forced Jakamarra to postpone the interview several times and, in the end, the man who gave so generously of his time and knowledge all his life simply ran out of time.
He died surrounded by his loved ones in Yuendumu at the start of February. His family has given the Central Land Council permission to publish this tribute to its executive member and long-term delegate.
“Jakamarra was a land rights champion of the first order and commanded enormous respect,” CLC chief executive Joe Martin-Jard said. “He often described himself as ‘a CLC man through and through’.”
That sentiment expressed by CLC chief executive Joe Martin-Jard aptly sums up the life and career of Jakamarra Nelson.
Born on Mount Doreen Station, Mr Nelson was six years old when his family was moved to Yuendumu, a welfare ration depot, around 1946. He was the fifth of nine siblings and his father had four wives.
Even though he only attended the community’s school until grade five, he benefited from many extra lessons by Baptist missionary Tom Fleming.
“I was lucky,” Jakamarra recalled in the CLC’s oral history collection Every Hill Got A Story. “The whitefella missionary used to teach me after hours … to give me extra education. That’s where I managed to pick up my command of English.” He considered himself blessed to have received a two-way education, with regular breaks from settlement life. “You’d go to church every Sunday, practice our culture every night if possible,” he said.
“A CLC man through and through”: Jakamarra at a council meeting at Kalkaringi in 2016.
On frequent trips to his family’s country “we had explained to us how far, how long it would take from A to B to get there – walking that is, cross-country with no map recorded, except in your mind. I think I could still do that – but I can’t walk!” After a mechanic’s apprenticeship Mr Nelson attended teachers college in Darwin and returned to the Yuendumu school as one of the first Aboriginal teachers in Central Australia.
“There were two of us, one at Alekarenge and myself,” he said. After five years of teaching Jakamarra decided the adults needed his help more, and he joined the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to support the outstation movement as an assistant community advisor.
He was a champion of Aboriginal-led economic and community development, serving on the advisory committee of the Aboriginal Benefit Account and as a director of Yuendumu’s Yapa-Kurlangu Ngurrara Aboriginal Corporation and always had the back of the CLC’s community development team.
As a director of the Granites Mine Affected Areas Aboriginal Corporation he helped to fund projects with mining compensation income that support Yuendumu’s most vulnerable, particularly the elderly.
A lifelong advocate of truth-telling, one of Mr Nelson’s last public appearances was as master of ceremonies for the 90th anniversary Coniston Massacre commemoration at Yurkurru in 2018. He was a nephew of Bullfrog, who died when Jakamarra was a young fella.
At the commemoration, he talked about the disastrous consequences of his uncle’s killing of the white dingo trapper Fred Brooks in 1928. “Hundreds of Aboriginal people got shot by the punitive party led by Constable George Murray. They just went beserk,” he explained. “I’m not angry,” he told the ABC. “The truth needs to be told, that’s all. It’s time that we move on and live in harmony.”
To help with this healing, he and other Yapa leaders believe we need a public holiday to mark the massacres. As for Yurkurru, one of the massacre sites: “I would like to see this turned into a national park.”
His call remains unfinished business, but one who would remember it is Labor’s Warren Snowdon who attended the commemoration with his “close friend for over 35 years”. “We have lost a great friend and a leader of passion and conviction,” the member for Lingiari said in February.
Mr Nelson (third from right) was one of the original CLC members who addressed new delegates after the 2019 CLC election.
“A strong voice that demanded to be heard, a person of great intellect and knowledge.”Another admirer, anti-domestic violence activist Charlie King is working on establishing an award in Mr Nelson’s name.
He told the NT News the award would recognise outstanding work in the fight against domestic and family violence and should become one of the annual NAIDOC awards. Mr King recalled that Jakamarra inspired the name for “No More”, the awareness campaign that works with sporting clubs to reduce family violence.
When the activist spoke with a group of Yuendumu men in 2006 about the shocking rates of domestic violence in the Territory, Jakamarra responded by waving his finger, saying “No more. No more.”
“How powerful is that?” Mr King said. “We will remember him for being a giant.” Jakamarra will also be remembered as a peace maker, who along with other senior men and women travelling between Alice Springs and Yuendumu, helped to prevent an explosion of grief and violence in Yuendumu following last year’s police killing of Kumanjayi Walker.
“It was through their leadership, calling for calm, calling for peace, calling for justice” that worse was averted, even though Jakamarra did not achieve his aim of moving the trial to Yuendumu, Mr Martin-Jard told the ABC.
Jakamarra (sitting with hands on head) with class mates and teacher at the old Sidney Williams shed that served as a schoolroom, 1950. Photo: NTAS, Tom Fleming.
“He wanted to see his people to see justice being done.” Mr Nelson worked as a Warlpiri interpreter during the early land council meetings and represented his community of Yuendumu on the council since 1988.
But more than 40 years later, following the most recent CLC elections in 2019, he told the many new young delegates why he was not yet ready to retire. “We are still very strong and still battling with the government and others who are damaging our country. I’m talking about the mining companies. That’s why I joined the land council,” he told them.
Mr Martin-Jard said that leadership will be missed. “He was a thorough gentleman who walked with ease in two worlds. We will all miss his wisdom and his humour,” he said.
Jakamarra leaves some big shoes to fill, and not just at the CLC.
“Mr Nelson was a fighter to the end,” Mr Snowdon said. “I met with him recently and he hoped those following in his footsteps would continue to protect knowledge, country and culture.”
Our thoughts are with Mr Nelson’s wife Lynette, his children and families.
Mutitjulu primary students harvesting urtjanpa with CLC Tjakura Ranger Ashley Paddy.
Students in Mutitjulu, Watarrka and Utju are soaking up traditional knowledge at school, thanks to a partnership between Tangentyere Council Land and Learning and the traditional owners of the Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park.
Each school worked with local elders to plan bush excursions and what they wanted to teach on the trips.
Utju studied bush medicine plants, with students learning to prepare rubbing medicine from the witjinti plants they had collected out bush, and drinking and rubbing medicines from ilintji.
The elders’ knowledge, along with the students’ drawings and photos of the excursions, were then used to create teaching resources in Pitjantjatjara and English.
At Utju, they made two language books, Irmangka – IrmangkaPalyantja, about making rubbing medicine from eremophilas, and Punti, Muur-muurpa, Witjinti munu Ilintji, Utjuku miritjina irititja kuwaritja, about how to use senna, bloodwood, corkwood and native lemongrass.
“It was a good story and the pictures too. Palya, it’s colourful and a good story,” assistant teacher Rachel Tjukintja said.
Teacher-linguist Leanne Goldsworthy agreed. “The book is beautiful and informative. It’s a great resource to have and a record of knowledge so it won’t be lost,” she said.
Anangu elders, the CLC’s Tjakura Rangers and the national park rangers took Mutitjulu students to Kata Tjuta to harvest urtjanpa (spearwood). They cut mulga wood for wana (digging sticks) and clap sticks from the surrounding woodlands and collected kiti (resin) from the mulga leaves.
They also made kulata (spears) and dug for maku (witchetty grubs). Back at the school, the elders showed the students how to finish their punu (wooden tools) and prepare kiti. They helped the students to record on worksheets what they had learnt. “We make kulata, wanaand music sticks. It was fun, I liked it,” student Sarah Lee Swan said. “The ladies teach us how to make them from the tree with different tools. I want to go camping next time.” Student Nazeeria Roesch agreed. “Yeah, fun. I make stick. I look for maku. Yes, let’s go again,” she said.
Maruku Arts provided the tools for this pununguru palyantja (making tools from trees) trip. With some planned trips cancelled due to COVID-19, Watarrka students illustrated Yaaltji ngiyarilu tjilka mantjinu (How the thorny devil got his spikes), a story told by Brian Clyne and translated by Julie Clyne.
