Central Land Council delegates have elected Sammy Wilson as CLC chair and Barbara Shaw as deputy chair at their meeting at Yulara Pulka outstation near Uluru.
Mr Wilson, the chair of the board of joint management of the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park and owner/operator of cultural tourism company Uluru Family Tours, pipped Ms Shaw by four votes.
“It feels very special to be elected on my grandfather Paddy Uluru’s country,” Mr Wilson said.
“I think he would be very happy.”
Mr Wilson, from Mutitjulu community, vowed to pursue the Uluru Statement from the Heart with whoever wins the coming federal election.
“I will tell them we’re not about taking over the government. We want to sit down with them at the same table and be listened to.”
Ms Shaw was elected deputy chair with 41 votes, only the second woman in the CLC’s history to win the office.
“My election results shows that the Central Land Council is ready for change,” she said.
Ms Shaw is a youth worker at the Tangentyere’s Brown Street Youth Drop-in Centre and works with Tangentyere’s womens family safety group targeting domestic violence in Alice Springs town camps.
She represents the Northern Territory on the Uluru Statement working group, and has been employed by the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT.
Ms Shaw stood as a Green Party candidate for the seat of Lingiari in 2010 and 2013.
Elected CLC delegates from 75 remote communities and outstations across the south of the Northern Territory also voted for the members of the CLC’s executive and the Aboriginals Benefit Account (ABA) advisory committee.
Mr Wilson thanked the outgoing CLC chair, Francis Kelly, for his six years of service and presented him with a kulata (spear) and spear thrower (mirru).
The CLC election was carried out by the Northen Territory Electoral Commission.
See the high resolution images of the election.