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By ERWIN CHLANDA
The native title holders of Alice Springs will have the opportunity at Saturday’s AGM to overturn a deal between their corporation, Lhere Artepe, and the NT Government, supporting the construction of the proposed national Aboriginal art centre in the Anzac Precinct.
Many Aboriginal people, including very senior custodians, have expressed their wish to have the gallery built south of The Gap.
Acting CEO Graeme Smith is not providing a list of motions to be discussed, not would he reply to this question from the Alice Springs News: “Is the recent $20m agreement between Lhere Artepe and the NT Government an inducement to support the Anzac location?”
In response to being shown a draft of this report Mr Smith replied: “Again some information which is incorrect. I have no comment to make about your stories when they are misleading, have a motive and is incorrect.”
He provided no substantiation for his allegations.
Lhere Artepe is made up of three corporations representing the local moieties, Mparntwe, Antulye and Irlpme, which in turn are having or recently had their AGMs.
They elect three members each to vote at the Lhere Artepe meeting. Each of the three moiety corporations will also get a vote.
The Alice Springs News understands there may soon be changes of the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 to limit the membership to “natural persons” – no longer including the three corporations.
They have a combined membership of about 250 people, according to undated but publicly available lists on the website of the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC).
These people are the registered native title holders of the municipality of Alice Springs, giving them a say over Crown land in that area.
The current Lhere Artepe members are:- Amanda Baird, Christine Campbell and Wayne Campbell (Mparntwe); Connie Craig, William Craig, Lynette Ellis-Ross and Shane Lindner (Antulye – the latter being the chairman of Lhere Artepe); as well as Phillipine Gorey, Raelene Martin and Matthew Palmer (Irlpme).
The AGM is not open to non-members.
PHOTO: The Anzac highschool building being demolished to make room for the proposed national Aboriginal art centre. Lhere Artepe’s support for this location may be come under attack at the native title organisation’s AGM on Saturday.
Related reading.
Early this month I heard a comment on ABC radio about the NT Government apparently looking at repurposing its preferred site for the National Aboriginal Art Gallery more broadly as a place for recognising Aboriginal achievements.
I replied with a comment (not read out on air): “Well, it was the location of the earliest CAAMA radio broadcasts almost 40 years ago; it’s where the Centre for Appropriate Technology began; it’s where the earliest Aboriginal land rights hearings in Central Australia were heard in the late 1970s.
“The bricks for the walls of a certain high school were made by the first local brickworks in Central Australia, owned and operated by one of the Liddle family in the early 1950s who were also prominent in the successful campaign for equal civil rights for Aboriginal people of mixed race descent in the NT in 1953 – the same building that was refused heritage listing and demolished by the NT Government to make way for the NAAG.”
Only the money matters for a lot of people, especially if it’s at public expense.
I really do hope the 3 estate groups give a big NO DEAL to Lhere Artepe. What is the land worth – a lot to the Aboriginal people. If the land is sold off or traded then the local Aboriginal people have nothing to call their own. They will end up with nothing eventually. Money cannot buy their ancestral land. The land means more to Aboriginal people than $s. Once those $s are gone the people will have nothing. Graeme Smith has not lived in Alice Springs for years and has caused waves and diversion since he arrived back in town. Another Gunna government puppet!