The members and staff of the Central Land Council congratulate CLC executive member and former CLC deputy chair Barbara Shaw on her election as the inaugural chair of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation.
“Ms Shaw is the right woman to lead the organisation that will bring the Aboriginals Benefit Account under the control of Aboriginal Territorians at last,” CLC chief executive Les Turner said.
“She is a passionate advocate for our people and has a track record as a long-term member of the old ABA advisory committee and as interim co-chair of the new corporation since 2022.
“She has long campaigned for the ABA to be controlled by the people whose land generates its income, and not by a federal minister.”
Ms Shaw, a youth worker from the Mount Nancy town camp in Alice Springs, took part in all the joint NT land council meetings over the past seven years that led to the establishment of the new corporation.
Last month, CLC delegates elected Dianne Stokes, from the Mangalawarra outstation, and Jimmy Frank, from Tennant Creek, to join the corporation’s grants committee.
The corporation’s grants program is set to deliver up to $60 million a year in funding to NT Aboriginal corporations for projects supporting culture, country, communities and business.
The corporation is replacing the former federal government-managed ABA grants program with its own process.
Ms Shaw will oversee the development of the process by the board, which has a majority of representatives from the four NT land councils.
The land councils have fought for more than 30 years to bring the $1.4 billion ABA under Aboriginal control.
“With the last federal government-run ABA grants round now closed, the end of this long journey towards self-determination is in sight,” Mr Turner said.