Tag: Other

The elected members of the Central Land Council are inviting the whole community to join them as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their council at the Alice Springs Bungalow/Telegraph Station on Saturday, 5 October.

The free afternoon and evening event will kick off at 2pm, featuring performers and guests from remote communities and beyond.

“The fire in our bellies still burns brightly, half a century on,” CLC chair Warren Williams said.

“And while the role of the CLC is changing in this post-land claim era, we will never stop speaking up for the people we represent.”

Communities across the southern half of the Territory will be represented by bands, traditional dancers and singers, and there will be a Blak Market with food, information, merchandise and activities for kids and adults.

“We are proud to present a program made up exclusively of artists from our region, and happy that some prominent former members, staff and friends of the CLC will be celebrating with us,” said Mr Williams.

“One special guest we’re all glad is feeling well enough to join a discussion panel hosted by filmmaker Rachel Perkins, the daughter of our first chair, is former CLC director Patrick Dodson, better known as the Father of Reconciliation.”

During the afternoon there will be two ‘truth-telling’ activities about the history of the Telegraph Station and the surrounding country.

“We would like to offer everyone a chance to learn how the Bungalow has affected the families of the Aboriginal people who grew up or were educated there before and after World War II,” said Mr Williams.

“And how protests by traditional owners and their allies in the eighties prevented a dam that would have flooded a sacred Arrernte women’s site just upriver.”

The CLC is expecting around 2000 people to enjoy themselves at any one time during this grog-free and family-friendly event.

It is pleased that the Liquor Commission has declared the Telegraph Station restricted premises for the day.

It has also asked the NT government and the town’s liquor licensees to close all takeaway outlets and bottle shops on 4 and 5 October – so far with disappointing results.

A notable exception is Lhere Artepe Enterprises who announced that the bottle shops at its three IGA stores will remain closed on both days.

“I commend Lhere Artepe for leading by example and urge others to show some responsibility and follow suit,” Mr Williams said.

“Our native title holders and long-term residents still remember how successful this measure proved when we celebrated our 30th anniversary at the ANZAC Oval.”

Mr Williams said the council members expect to hold an equally harmonious event this time around.

“Come on down, have fun and maybe even learn something new. Everyone is welcome!”

Contact: Elke Wiesmann | 0417 877 579 | media@clc.org.au

Download PDF

A special meeting of the Central Land Council yesterday elected former CLC deputy chair Warren Williams to lead the council as its new chair.

CLC members gathered at Tennant Creek from across the southern half of the Northern Territory voted for the former assistant principal from Yuendumu to replace Matthew Palmer, who had lost the confidence of the council. Mr Williams was a deputy to both Mr Palmer and his late predecessor, Mr Hoosan, with whom he shared a focus on the wellbeing of young people. As a former councillor and deputy president of the Central Desert Regional Council and chair of Yuendumu’s Warlpiri Project he brings a wealth of leadership experience to his new role. In thanking members for their confidence, Mr Williams said he would keep speaking up for people out bush and uphold the CLC’s strong governance culture and its commitment to honesty and fairness.

“This special meeting is testament to our council’s good governance processes,” he said.

“I would like to pay tribute to the integrity of my fellow elected members and express my confidence in, and high regard for, CLC chief executive Lesley Turner.” Mr Williams will be supported by newly-elected deputy chair Barbara Shaw, from Mount Nancy town camp in Alice Springs. Ms Shaw is a former deputy chair of the CLC and the current chair of Aboriginal Investment Northern Territory. They will lead the council until the regular council elections in April next year.

Download PDF

The elected members of the Central Land Council have called out untrue media statements by three constituents who have alleged that they were asked to leave a council meeting at Watarrka (King’s Canyon) in July.

“This is untrue – I was there,” said CLC executive committee member Barbara Shaw from Alice Springs. “Nobody was removed from the meeting. On the contrary, the women in question were heard at length and treated with politeness and respect.”

At the July council meeting Ms Shaw participated in a discussion by the elected members from the CLC’s Alice Springs region about a forthcoming review of how CLC members are chosen.

The council normally undertakes these reviews before a CLC election, with the next such election scheduled for April 2025.

Ms Shaw said the visitors asked to speak to the regional group and were allowed to do so.

“We welcomed the women into the group and listened for a long time to their reasons why their outstation should have its own, separate representation on the council.”

“We heard them out and gave them most of our limited discussion time, but they took over,” said another member of the group, Conrad Ratara from Ntaria (Hermannsburg).

“Ours is the largest of the nine CLC regions, and we also needed to talk about how the many other communities and organisations around Alice Springs are represented on the CLC,” he said.

Having made their case, the visitors left the group on their own accord during a break in the meeting.

“Members of our region then wished to complete our discussion without visitors and we asked them politely not to re-join the group after the break,” Ms Shaw said.

“There are so many witnesses who can testify that we treated the visitors respectfully and that nobody asked them to leave the meeting,” Ingrid Williams from Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa), another elected member from the Alice Springs region said.

“I am surprised and hurt that, after giving them so much of our time, they are now attacking us with false media statements.”

“If they are unhappy they should make a formal complaint so it can be properly investigated,” Ms Williams said.

Anyone can lodge a complaint against the CLC or give feedback by following the process set out on the CLC website.

The CLC has not received any complaints about the July meeting and encourages the women to put their concerns in writing or meet with the CLC’s executive committee and senior management.

Any CLC constituent can attend council meetings and speak at non-confidential parts of these meetings with the permission of the chair or the council, and many do so regularly.

Every three years CLC constituents elect the 90 members of the council and can stand for election themselves.

Contact: Tess O’Loughlin | 0461 396 054 | media@clc.org.au

Download PDF

The members and staff of the Central Land Council are deeply saddened by the passing of the esteemed former Anindilyakwa Land Council chair, Mr T Wurramarrba AO.

“Mr Wurramarrba was a remarkable leader and advocate for his people,” CLC chief executive Les Turner said.

“His unwavering dedication to the Anindilyakwa community and his significant contributions to advancing the rights and interests of Indigenous people will always be remembered.

“Throughout his career, Mr Wurramarrba represented the Anindilyakwa people at all levels of government, always focusing on the future,” Mr Turner said.

Mr T Wurramarrba understood that a strong cultural foundation was essential to self-determination. He retired last month after many years of service to the Anindilyakwa people.

He was at the forefront of ALC’s biggest milestones, including the Groote Archipelago Local Decision-Making Agreement, the establishment of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation and the return of the Groote Eylandt township lease to community control.

Mr T Wurramarrba played important roles on several boards and committees including, Aboriginal Peak Organisation NT, Miwatj Health, and the MJD Foundation. He was also a valuable member of the former ABA Advisory Committee.

In 2013, Mr T Wurramarrba was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia for his exceptional service to the Indigenous community of the Groote Archipelago.

“Our thoughts are with Mr Wurramarrba’s family, friends and colleagues, especially those at the ALC,” CLC chair Matthew Palmer said.

“He was a great man who profoundly impacted the people of Groote Eylandt and the wider community. He will be remembered with immense respect and admiration.”

Download PDF

The executive committee of the Central Land Council condemns yesterday’s senseless and shameful behaviour.

Meeting in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) today, the CLC executive called for the perpetrators of yesterday’s disturbance to be held to account.

“It is never ok to frighten residents and damage their property,” CLC chair Matthew Palmer said.

“They have disrespected the native title holders of Mparntwe who have made it very clear how they expect people to behave.”

“Young people should not take matters into their own hands but follow cultural leadership and authority.”

Deputy chair Warren Williams said the peacemakers deserve everybody’s support.

“We commend the Aboriginal leaders and the steps they have taken so far and who are trying to resolve the dispute peacefully.”

“Cultural processes are best dealt with on country, under the guidance of the elders and senior community leaders.”

The CLC will support community leaders to help families resolve the underlying disputes.

Contact: Tess O’Loughlin | 0461 396 054 | media@clc.org.au

Download the PDF

The Central Land Council is mourning the passing of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG, who died peacefully on February 4 2024, at 91.

She was a proud Yankunytjatjara woman who devoted her life to advocating for and improving the health and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Dr O’Donoghue played a crucial role in drafting an agreement that laid the foundation for the Native Title Act and worked out the implications of the High Court’s Mabo decision.

According to former CLC Director David Ross, who led what is now the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation at the time, Dr O’Donoghue was known for her directness when dealing with then Prime Minister Paul Keating. She understood that the High Court had opened a door that could quickly close.

Dr O’Donoghue saw an opportunity to create Native Title laws that would change Australia, and she seized it.

“Dr O’Donoghue was a tenacious leader who opened many doors for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and we owe her a debt of gratitude because without her we wouldn’t have Native Title,” said Les Turner, CEO of the Central Land Council.

Born in remote South Australia, Dr O’Donoghue was a child of the stolen generation and was taken from her mother at just two years old.

It would take 33 years for her to reunite with her mother Lily. She was raised in a children’s home and received training as a domestic worker.

Her first achievement in a life dedicated to fighting for justice for Indigenous people was becoming the first Aboriginal nurse in South Australia.

Dr O’Donoghue accomplished many remarkable feats throughout her career. She was the founding chairperson for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the first Aboriginal to address the United Nations General Assembly, and the first Aboriginal woman appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia.

The Central Land Council extends its deepest condolences to Dr O’Donoghue’s family and friends.

Contact: Tess O’Loughlin | 0461 396 054 | media@clc.org.au

Download PDF

The members and staff of the Central Land Council are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Northern Land Council chair Dr Bush-Blanasi.

The CLC has lowered its flag to half-mast out of respect for the 2003 NT Australian of the Year.

“Our younger members can barely remember a time when Dr Bush-Blanasi did not provide strong leadership to the Northern Land Council, either as chair or deputy chair,” Central Land Council deputy chair Warren Williams said.

“It is truly heartbreaking to lose yet another respected and outstanding Territory leader well before his time.

“Dr Bush-Blanasi was a steadfast and outspoken ally over many years.” Mr Williams said.

“He connected with people from all walks of life and cut through with decision makers on all sides of politics.”

“From the 2018 Barunga Agreement about a treaty with the NT government to the campaign to bring the Aboriginals Benefit Account under the control of Aboriginal Territorians and this year’s voice referendum, you could always count on him to fight on the right side of history.”

“He stood with the other NT land council chairs as they delivered the Barunga Voice Declaration to the Australian people at Parliament House in Canberra in July,” he said.

“Our thoughts are with Dr Bush-Blanasi’s family, friends and colleagues, especially those at the NLC. We know how they feel, having lost our own chair unexpectedly this time last year.”

“In a year of losses this is a loss that reminds us that we all must do so much more close the life expectancy gap between our people and other Australians.”

Contact: Elke Wiesmann | 0417 877 579| media@clc.org.au

Download the PDF

The members and staff of the Central Land Council are deeply saddened about the sudden passing of the deputy chair of the Anindilyakwa Land Council, Mr Amagula, in Darwin yesterday.

“Mr Amagula was an impressive young leader, full of plans and passion for his people, and with so much to offer to his country,” CLC chief executive Les Turner said.

“He didn’t let his failing health stop him from joining the chairs of the other Northern Territory land councils as they presented the Barunga Voice Declaration to the Prime Minister in June this year.”

“As a member of the Voice Referendum Engagement Group he was proud of his signature under the declaration and he will be in our hearts and minds as we vote in the referendum.”

Mr Amagula served as deputy chair of the ALC board since 2018.

He was a director of the Aboriginal Sea Company Ltd, the Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation and Miwatj Health.

A former Dhimurru Ranger, he helped to set up the Anindilyakwa Land and Sea Rangers Program on Groote Eylandt and worked at the Gumatj Gulkula Regional Training Centre.

Young people were close to Mr Amagula’s heart.

He championed youth development, juvenile diversion programs and sports coaching.

He also travelled to Europe and North America to facilitate repatriations.

“We have lost a good man in our shared struggle for a better future for our people,” Mr Turner said.

“Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this difficult time.”

Contact: Elke Wiesmann | 0417 877 579| media@clc.org.au

Download the PDF

The Central Land Council calls on the Senate to reject a review that would duplicate existing independent processes that have confirmed the CLC’s effective representation of Aboriginal Territorians.

“Northern Territory land councils are among the most-successful and most reviewed organisations in the country and the CLC has demonstrated over and over that we are well-governed, transparent and effective,” CLC chief executive Les Turner said.

“Only two months ago we welcomed an intensive performance audit by the Australian National Audit Office.

One of a series of audits of NT land councils to be tabled this year alone.”

The National Indigenous Australians Agency also regularly reviews the performance of the land councils.

“Not only are we demonstrably accountable to our constituents and governments and improving continuously how we operate, we are also helping to closing the gap,” said Mr Turner.

“We contribute to one of the few targets in the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap that are on track, the native title target.”

Reviews show that the CLC provides effective and efficient services to traditional owners whose native title rights over a 161,000 square kilometres area have been recognised so far.

It also protects the interests of the traditional owners of more than 418,000 square kilometres of Aboriginal freehold land, has set up 14 ranger groups to help traditional owners to manage their land and has supported traditional owners and remote community residents to invest more than $200 million of their collective income in community-driven development projects.

Mr Turner urged the Senate to reject the review motion because it is wasteful. “I wonder what is driving such attempts to tie successful organisations up in more red tape.

“An additional review would force us to direct our limited resources away from serving some of the poorest Australians.”

Mr Turner said another review would duplicate the ANAO’s rigorous audits. “As we have heard loudly and clearly during this year’s Garma Festival, more waste and duplication and more of the same are unacceptable, and no substitute for a positive agenda for remote communities,” he said.

“Instead of making it harder for the most effective Aboriginal organisations to do their job the coalition should listen to the call of the elected representatives of grass roots Aboriginal people for a constitutionally enshrined voice.”

Contact: Sophia Willcocks | 0488 984 885| media@clc.org.au

Download the PDF

The Central Land Council is flying the Aboriginal flag at half-mast as its members and staff mourn the loss of one of the nation’s greatest Aboriginal leaders, Mr Yunupingu.

“Mr Yunupingu devoted his life to fighting for our land rights and our right to determine our own affairs,” Central Land Council chair Matthew Palmer said.

“Our hearts go out to his family, the Gumatj clan, to Yolngu and all his friends and admirers.”

Mr Palmer said the former long-term chair of the Northern Land Council was a strong advocate for the Voice to Parliament.

“Mr Yunupingu chaired the Northern Land Council when he, my predecessor Wenten Rubuntja, and other leaders presented the prime minister with a bark painting that became famous as the Barunga Statement,” Mr Palmer said.

The statement called on the commonwealth parliament to “negotiate with us a treaty recognising our prior ownership, continued occupation and sovereignty, and affirming our human rights and freedom”.

Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised that he would work to conclude a treaty with Aboriginal Australia by 1990 and lived to regret breaking that promise.

“Later this year we have an opportunity to right this wrong and take a significant step towards Mr Yunupingu’s vision.

“Let’s honour him by not wasting this once-in-a lifetime chance,” Mr Palmer said.

Contact: Sophia Willcocks | 0488 984 885| media@clc.org.au

Download the PDF

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.

Central Land Council chief executive Les Turner has paid tribute to the High Court judge who wrote the lead judgement in the landmark Mabo case.

Sir Gerard Brennan’s judgement recognised for the first time under Australian law that the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to their land according to their own laws and customs not only predated, but survived, settlement and continue to this day.

Mr Turner said Sir Gerard, who died on Wednesday, on the eve of the 30^th Mabo anniversary, would be always remembered for the historic decision.

“We will never forget that Sir Gerard exposed the lie of Terra Nullius at the heart of Australia’s legal system,” he said.

“By the time he handed down the Mabo decision in 1992, he had heard many appeals brought by the enemies of land rights in the Northern Territory.”

Sir Gerard is being remembered as a brilliant and compassionate man who in retirement campaigned for social justice and advocated for a national integrity commission.

In his Mabo judgement he wrote “It is imperative in today’s world that the common law should neither be, nor be seen to be, frozen in an age of racial discrimination”.

“The fiction by which the rights and interests of Indigenous (people) in land were treated as non-existent was justified by a policy which has no place in the contemporary law of this country.”

Mr Turner paid his respects to the family of Sir Gerard on behalf of the CLC. “I hope his children take comfort in the knowledge that thirty years on, their father’s judgment continues to set precedence in our continuing fights for our land.”

The chair of the Central Land Council, Robert Hoosan, has congratulated the Northern Territory’s four federal representatives on their election success. Mr Hoosan said he is particularly proud of the trio of female Aboriginal politicians.

“Marion, Malarndirri and Jacinta have campaigned hard for their victories and made history,” he said. “Each made their case strongly during our recent council meetings. I wish them all well. “It’s so good to have three Aboriginal women represent us in Canberra, and our elected members look forward to meeting with them again as soon as possible.”

Mr Hoosan plans to work closely with the new member for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, and NT senators Malarndirri McCarthy and Jacinta Price to improve the lives of people in remote communities and town camps. “I want to work with them on creating real jobs and building decent houses in our remote communities, and making our communities safe and healthy places for all residents,” he said.

“From climate change to water security, the previous government has left us with a lot of challenges that we must now tackle together if we want to have a future on our country. There is no time to lose.”

Mr Hoosan, an elder and youth worker who teaches bush skills to young men at risk, believes that implementing the Uluru Statement for the Heart will change lives. “I would not be interested if it was about symbolism,” he said. “We need a voice to the parliament so we can let Canberra know which practical solutions we think will work for our people and which are doomed to fail.” Mr Hoosan said he wants elected representatives to leave the old politics of division behind.

“I hope we call all work together and make the voice a reality – for all Australians,” he said.

The Interim Board of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation (NTAIC) met for the first time this week, on 27-28 April, in Darwin.

The NTAIC is the centrepiece of the reforms to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) passed by the Australian Parliament in December 2021. It gives Aboriginal control over beneficial payments from the Aboriginals Benefit Account (ABA).

“I welcomed the reforms to the Land Rights Act when they passed last year,” Interim Board member and Chairman of the Northern Land Council, Mr Samuel Bush-Blanasi said. “I was there when the Land Councils discussed this at Kalkaringi in 2016, at Barunga in 2018 and in Alice Springs in 2021. Now the real work starts,” said Mr Bush-Blanasi.

The first order of business this week was the election of an Interim Chair. The Board took nominations and appointed Mr Samuel Bush-Blanasi and Ms Barbara Shaw as Interim Co-Chairs.

“The investments we make through the corporation will generate returns back to the corporation and create sustainability”, said Interim Co-Chair Ms Barbara Shaw.

The Interim Board comprises eight members nominated by the four NT Land Councils and two independent members appointed by the Minister for Indigenous Australians and the Minister for Finance. The Interim Board is responsible for appointing two more independent members, bringing the total number on the Interim Board to 12.

Interim Board member and Chair of the Tiwi Land Council Mr Gibson Farmer Illortaminni said the new corporation aims to help get grants to communities quicker than the current arrangements.

As set out in the Land Rights Act, the NTAIC will receive grant funding of $180 million over the first three years of operation. Once it has developed and tabled in Parliament a Strategic Investment Plan, the NTAIC will receive an endowment of $500 million.

The Board will appoint an Investment Committee to give advice on major investments, an Audit and Risk Committee and a committee to consider grants. The Interim Board will work with the existing ABA Advisory Committee to maximise opportunities for a new, accessible, efficient and culturally appropriate beneficial payments program.

Chair of the Anindilyakwa Land Council, Mr Tony Wurramarrba AO, said “this is an historic and long overdue milestone for Aboriginal people in the NT and in order to be successful the Board must ensure that it applies the highest standards of governance and accountability for all decisions.”

The NTAIC will commence operations following the appointment of the remaining two independent members and the Investment Committee, or after 12 months from Royal Assent on 13 December 2022, whichever comes first.

Download the PDF

Barbara Shaw and Derek Walker will represent the Central Land Council on the 12-member board of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Investment Corporation.

Ms Shaw, from Alice Springs, and Mr Walker, from Alekarenge, were chosen at the CLC meeting in Tennant Creek, in a secret ballot run by the NT Electoral Commission.

In a significant step towards greater Aboriginal control over the 1.3 billion dollar Aboriginals Benefit Account, the new corporation will manage the payments to Aboriginal Territorians and their organisations known as ABA grants.

The corporation, a commonwealth corporate entity established under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, will also make investments and provide financial assistance “to or for the benefit of” NT Aboriginal people.

Its board has a majority of Aboriginal members, including two from each of the four NT land councils.

“For the first time, an Aboriginal-controlled body will make decisions about ABA funds and I look forward to our members shaping the corporation that brings the ABA home to the NT, where it belongs,” said CLC chief executive Les Turner.

The ABA distributes the equivalents of royalties generated by mining on Aboriginal land in the NT, and the CLC has advocated for Aboriginal control over this income for more than three decades.

The council also elected a new leadership team that represents the CLC regions.

The new CLC chair, Robert Hoosan, and deputy chair, Warren Williams, will be joined on the executive committee by Barbara Shaw (Alice Springs region), Charles Gibson (South West region), Valerie Martin (Tanami region), Martin Jugadai (Western region), Sandra Jones Morrison (Tennant Creek region), Jackie Mahoney (Eastern Sandover region), Neville Petrick (Eastern Plenty region) and Kim Brown (Central region).

The North West region delegates will chose an executive member at a later date.

7 April 2022

In Harold Furber the Central Land Council has lost a former assistant director and Alice Springs has lost a leader of great passion and strong convictions.

Mr Furber was born in Alice Springs in 1952 and in 1957 was taken from his mother Emily to the Croker Island Methodist Mission, along with his younger sister Trish, when he was still only four years old. During his early years on Croker, Trish was adopted by a couple from Queensland. Other future leaders such as the late Tracker Tilmouth became his surrogate family.

He first left the island to attend Darwin High School, returning to Croker for the school holidays until he was sixteen years old. Later, he did an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker in Adelaide. He went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma in Social Work, the latter at what is now the University of South Australia.

A talented footy player, he rubbed shoulders with the great players of his day at the North Adelaide Football Club in the early 1970s. During the off season he also played for the Buffaloes in Darwin. After he found his way back to his Arrernte family in Central Australia, he made a name for himself at the Pioneers and Souths football clubs in Alice Springs.  

Determined to find his sister Trish, he signed up with a Queensland footy team, which gave him the opportunity to search for her. He eventually succeeded and was best man at her wedding in 1974.  

In the late 1970s he became one of the early employees of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress in Alice Springs. In 1991, when he was the director of the Yipirinya School, he decided to broaden his   education. With the help of an ATSIC scholarship he studied at the University of Canberra, graduating with a Batchelor of Arts (Public Administration).

Mr Furber became the CLC’s assistant director in 1994 and worked there in a variety of senior positions until 2005. He was very invested in the repatriation of cultural objects to their rightful owners and is one of the authors of the CLC’s oral history collection Every Hill Got A Story. His recollections about his experiences as a member of the land rights movement, the Stolen Generations and as a driving force behind many Aboriginal-controlled organisations around Alice Springs in the 1970s and 1980s make for compelling reading.

Organisations that have benefited from his energy and passion for more than three decades include the Tangentyere Council and Desert Knowledge Australia, where he was a deputy chair and board member. He was part of the committee that planned the Desert Knowledge Precinct and until recently served there as elder-in-residence. He also chaired the Desert People’s Centre (a joint venture of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education and the Centre for Appropriate Technology) and was on the board of the Desert Knowledge Co-operative Research Centre.

Mr Furber also ran (unsuccessfully) as a Labor candidate for the  NT Legislative Assembly twice – first in 1990 in Greatorex, and then MacDonnell in 2001.   

Most recently, he advocated strongly for the establishment of a National Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Gallery at the Desert Knowledge Precinct. He was implacably opposed to the NT Government’s plans for a National Aboriginal Gallery at the ANZAC Oval.

Mr Furber passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family in Alice Springs on Friday. He is survived by his three children, Melanie and Patricia Marron and Declan Furber Gillick, and his sisters, Margaret Furber, Toni Arundel and Trish Kiessler. He will be deeply missed.

The members and staff of the Central Land Council farewell land rights leader John ‘Christo’ Christopherson, who was laid to rest in Darwin today.  

“Christo was much loved and admired by so many, for his intellect and clear-sighted and unceasing advocacy for our land and water rights on the national and international stage,” CLC chief executive Lesley Turner said.  

“His career, from apprentice electrician to regional manager of the Aboriginal Development Commission and first manager of the first men’s health clinic at the Danila Dilba health service, continue to inspire, and so does his commitment to a healthy environment and climate.”  

Mr Christopherson was the longest-serving member of the Northern Land Council, where he worked for many years as executive member and twice served as deputy chair.  

“He was a passionate advocate for our water rights and sustainable development, targeting commercial fishing and fracking alike,” said Mr Turner.  

“We owe him a debt of gratitude for the role he played in the lead-up to the High Court Blue Mud Bay decision which recognised that Aboriginal rights extend between the high and low water mark adjoining Aboriginal land.”    

On his ancestral lands, the Cobourg Peninsula, he provided leadership on the board of the region’s sanctuary and marine park.  

He served on the Cobourg Fisheries Management Advisory Committee and was instrumental in the development of the Cobourg Marine Park Plan of Management.  

He was also a member of the National Federation of Land Councils, Indigenous Protected Areas National Working Group, as well as serving as Vice President of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples.  

In 1988, Mr Christopherson joined CLC members and staff as they embarked on a 11,000 kilometre journey to the anti-Bicentenary march in Sydney.  

His heart-felt account of the growing convoy in Land Rights News describes how buses carried an estimated 1,000 people from the Kimberley, Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs to Sydney’s La Perouse.  

“Our thoughts are with his mother and siblings, his nine children and many nephews, nieces and grandchildren,” Mr Turner said. 

Members and staff of the Central Land Council are mourning the passing of executive member and long-term delegate Jakamarra Nelson and send their deepest condolences to his family and friends.

“Jakamarra was a land rights champion of the first hour and commanded enormous respect,” CLC chief executive Joe Martin-Jard said.

“He worked as a Warlpiri interpreter during the early land council meetings and represented his community of Yuendumu on the council since 1988.

“He was a thorough gentleman who walked with ease in two worlds. We will all miss his wisdom and his humour.”

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 additional tuition by Baptist missionary Tom Fleming.

“I was lucky,” he 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.

On regular 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 apprenticeship Mr Nelson attended teachers college in Darwin and returned to the Yuendumu school to teach, becoming one of the first Aboriginal teachers in Central Australia.

After five years teaching 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 development, serving on the advisory committee of the Aboriginal Benefits Account and as a director of Yuendumu’s Yapa-Kurlangu Ngurrara Aboriginal Corporation,” Mr Martin-Jard said.

A lifelong advocate for truth-telling, one of Mr Nelson’s last public appearances was as MC at the 90th anniversary Coniston Massacre commemoration at Yurkurru in 2018.

Following the last 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 said.

Our thoughts are with Mr Nelson’s wife Lynette, his children and families.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elke Wiesmann | 0417 877 579 | media@clc.org.au

David Ross, AM richly deserves the honour bestowed on him today.

“From leaving his mark on the national Aboriginal land rights struggle to guiding the CLC’s successful ranger and community development programs, Mr Ross is an outstanding leader who has done so much to advance the rights and improve the lives of Aboriginal people in Central Australia,” CLC chief executive Joe Martin-Jard said.

“Today’s announcement that he has been awarded membership of the general division of the Order of Australia for serving his community will be warmly welcomed by our constituents, elected members and staff, and all the more so because he has never sought the limelight.

“He is a famously humble leader who has always focussed on serving his ‘bosses’ out bush and getting the job done. His integrity is legendary.”

Mr Ross was part of the Aboriginal leadership group that advised former Prime Minister Paul Keating about the Native Title Act.

“He has achieved the rare distinction of being both highly respected by the nation’s Aboriginal leaders and all spheres of government,” said Mr Martin-Jard.

Mr Ross joined the CLC as a field officer in 1979 and became its director in 1989.

Apart from a few years in the late 1990s, when he was a full-time commissioner with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and the inaugural executive chair of the Indigenous Land Corporation, he led the CLC until his retirement last year.

He guided its transition from an agency that won land claims for a culturally diverse constituency to an organisation with growing land management and community development programs that provide employment for Aboriginal people on their country and promote investment.

In 2005, Mr Ross became an early champion the Warlpiri Education and Training Trust (WETT), an initiative of a group of female educators from remote communities in the Tanami Desert that has so far invested more than $34 million of gold mining royalties in almost 200 projects for life-long education and training.

“This award-winning bicultural and bilingual program kicked off our broader, cutting edge community development program through which our constituents have invested almost $117 million in projects they control,” Mr Martin-Jard said.

“It has inspired a similar program at the Northern Land Council, and other Aboriginal communities, and organisations around Australia look to it as an example of how they can drive positive change through their income from land use agreements.”

“That the program has grown from strength to strength is due to the extraordinary personal commitment of Mr Ross over the past decade to Aboriginal employment and control.

“The same can be said about our Aboriginal ranger program which started in 2000 and employs a hundred men and women in remote communities and which is close to his heart.”

Also under Mr Ross’ leadership, the CLC recently negotiated agreements for two pipeline projects that have together involved investment of more than $1 billion.

It negotiated with multiple groups of traditional owners and yet delivered the projects on time and on budget.

The first of these pipelines supplies gas to the eastern states, thereby addressing the acute shortage, and the second lowers carbon emissions by replacing diesel with gas at Newmont Goldcorp’s mine in the Tanami.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elke Wiesmann | 0417 877 579| media@clc.org.au

Northern Territory artist and senior law woman Eunice Napanangka Jack has won the $15,000 Vincent Lingiari Art Award prize for her painting Kuruyultu.

The widely acclaimed artist from the remote community of Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff), approximately three hours’ drive west of Alice Springs, doesn’t only paint her country – she also wears it on her body.

“I have a scar on my back from it,” Ms Jack said. “It happened before I was born.”

Ms Jack said the night before she was born, approximately 80 years ago, her mother’s father ate a wallaby he had speared at Kuruyultu, a site near the remote community of Tjukurla in Western Australia.

“At the same time my heavily pregnant mother could feel me moving inside her.

“Only my father knows all the stories for that country, and he painted them too. I know the story of the wallaby which left me with a birthmark. That’s what I paint,” she said.

This year’s award judge Glenn Iseger-Pilkington said Ms Jack’s work “speaks to the story of her life, her birth and her cultural inheritance, which informs all that she paints, all that’s she is, and where she belongs”.

“I was taken aback with the sense of movement, balance and energy held within a modest sized canvas rendered in blues, oranges, varying shades of golden creams and pale yellows. It is a painting which is quiet and reflective yet simultaneously bold and energetic.”

Ms Jack has held 11 solo exhibitions and has been a finalist in many art prestigious awards, including several times in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, but this is only her second art prize.

Desart and the Central Land Council joined forces for only the second time to present the Vincent Lingiari Art Award.

Mr Lingiari’s granddaughters were present when Ms Jack was named the winner at the Tangentyere Artists Gallery in Alice Springs on Wednesday night.

The CLC’s deputy chair Barbara Shaw also announced the winner of the CLC Delegates’ Choice Award on the night.

“At their council meeting in August at Ross River, our delegates picked a small painting by David Frank which celebrates a successful handback of land near Ernabella in the early 80s,” Ms Shaw said.

“It’s the second time they voted for one of Mr Frank’s works. They really like a good handback.”

Mr Frank, from Iwantja Arts, also won the first CLC Delegates’ Choice Award in 2016.

The inaugural Vincent Lingiari Art Award celebrated 40 years since the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (ALRA) and 50 years since the Wave Hill Walk Off.

The 23 entries from across central Australia and beyond in this year’s award reflect the artists’ personal truths.

They tell stories ranging from the fallout of the Maralinga nuclear tests to reconciliation, housing and road construction in media such as sculpture, ceramic, video installation and painting.

Aboriginal artists and art centres in the CLC region as well as Desart member centres and individual Aboriginal artists close to the CLC region with strong links to Aboriginal land in the region were eligible to enter in the award.

The Vincent Lingiari Art Award exhibition runs until 18th October at the Tangentyere Artists Gallery at 16 Fogarty Street in Alice Springs.

It has been generously funded by the Peter Kittle Motor Company and Newmont Goldcorp.

Media contacts: Philip Watkins, eo@desart.com.au, 0403 193 266 and Elke Wiesmann, elke.wiesmann@clc.org.au, 0417 877 579.

Desart and the Central Land Council have joined forces for the second time to present the Vincent Lingiari Art Award.

Mr Lingiari’s granddaughters will be present when the winner of the $15,000 Aboriginal art prize is announced at the exhibition opening at the Tangentyere Artists Gallery in Alice Springs on Wednesday, 4 September, at 6pm.

Just like the inaugural Vincent Lingiari Art Award in 2016, which celebrated 40 years since the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (ALRA) and 50 years since the Wave Hill Walk Off, this year’s award is unashamedly political.

The theme True Story – My Country resonates with the Uluru Statement’s call for truth telling.

CLC chair Sammy Wilson, one of the hosts of the 2017 convention that agreed on the statement, said Australia needs to face up to its colonial history before it can move forward as a reconciled nation.

“Anangu believe that if you don’t know your tjukurpa – your country’s stories, songs and ceremonies – you remain a child, no matter how old you get,” Mr Wilson said.

“This is true for people and for nations. You can’t grow up without facing the hard things. As a person, you have to keep opening the doors of deeper knowledge. If Australia doesn’t open the next door it will be stuck.”

“The Uluru Statement – voice, treaty and truth – is the next door and our art is a key to that door,” he said.

The 23 entries from across central Australia and beyond reflect the artists’ personal truths.

“The works tell stories ranging from the fallout of the Maralinga nuclear tests to reconciliation, housing and road construction,” said Desart CEO Philip Watkins.

He congratulated the artists and thanked Glenn Isegar Pilkington for agreeing to judge the award.

“Glenn is a highly respected Nhanda and Nyoongar artist, writer and curator with an impressive practice working alongside our communities,” he said.

Aboriginal artists and art centres in the CLC region were eligible to enter works in any medium, and the exhibition features sculptures, ceramics, video installations and paintings.

Desart member centres and individual Aboriginal artists close to the CLC region with strong links to Aboriginal land in the region also entered works.

CLC members again elected the winner of the Delegates’ Choice Award and will announce the winner of the $2,000 prize on Wednesday evening.

The CLC and Desart created the Vincent Lingiari Art Award to celebrate the shared history of land rights and the Aboriginal art movement which evolved at the same time, share the same roots and have both empowered Aboriginal people.

Marlene Rubuntja, from Alice Springs, won the inaugural prize for her sculpture My future is in my hands.

The Vincent Lingiari Art Award exhibition will be open until the 18 October and has been generously funded by the Peter Kittle Motor Company and Newmont Goldcorp.

Media contacts: Philip Watkins, eo@desart.com.au, 0403 193 266 and Elke Wiesmann, elke.wiesmann@clc.org.au, 0417 877 579.

The members and staff of the Central Land Council mourn the passing of Kumanjayi Granites who chaired the CLC from 1994 until 1996.

Kumanjayi is remembered as a senior law man, pastor and education champion.

“Mr Granites knew the value of a well-rounded bilingual and bicultural education,” said Central Land Council director David Ross.

As a young man he trained as a teacher. He completed a Bachelor of Education and later undertook post-graduate studies.

Kumanjayi was an ATSIC councillor and served on the Yuendumu Community Council, including as its president.

Until close to his death last night, he worked as an interpreter, mentor and mediator in his home community of Yuendumu, three hours north-west of Alice Springs.

He was born there in approximately 1950 and raised in the community by parents from the Mount Doreen and Granites areas.

Kumanjayi was widely related to families across Central Australia.

In the CLC’s oral history collection, Every Hill Got a Story, he spoke about his grandfather from the Lake Mackay area and connections on his mother’s side towards Alekarenge and Willowra.

In his time as the CLC chair, Kumanjayi focussed on the repatriation of sacred objects.

“In 1994, he travelled with inaugural CLC chair Wenten Rubuntja to Sydney to collect sacred objects bought overseas by a businessman to bring them back home to their rightful owners,” Mr Ross said.

During a CLC symposium on the return of sacred objects in 1995, an effort to persuade museums around the country to return these objects, he spoke about the urgency of this unfinished business. Around the same time Kumanjayi began to make a name for himself as an artist. His works are held by public and private collections throughout Australia.

South Australian artist David Frank has won the Central Land Council Delegates’ Choice Award for his painting Our Future at the CLC meeting at Kalkaringi today, ahead of a historic joint meeting of Northern Territory land councils tomorrow and on Thursday.

Mr Frank is a ngangkari (traditional healer) and former South Australian Police employee who has worked on cattle stations before taking up painting at Indulkana community’s Iwantja Arts Centre.

The $2,000 prize he won today is part of the Vincent Lingiari Art Award which marks 40 years of land rights and 50 years since the Wave Hill Walk Off that kicked off the national campaign for Aboriginal land rights in 1966.

Our Future depicts the famous scene of Gough Whitlam pouring red dirt into Vincent Lingiari’s palm.

“We, too have been stockmen, many of us,” Mr Frank said. “When we were young we worked hard on cattle stations for rations. Lingiari helped to start the land rights story.”

His painting was one of 23 collaborative works and individual creations in a range of media shortlisted by judges Brenda Croft and Stephen Gilchrist.

Aboriginal artists from Central Australia submitted one work for each of the 40 years of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) 1976, the high water mark of Aboriginal rights in this country.

“Mr Frank’s painting captured the hearts and minds of our elected members,” said CLC chair Francis Kelly, who announced the Delegates Choice Award winner with Mr Lingiari’s son, Timmy Vincent.

“Now we have to be a little bit patient to find out who will win the main $15,000 Vincent Lingiari Art Award prize.”

Curator Hetti Perkins will choose the overall winner on 7th September at Tangentyere Artists Gallery in Alice Springs, at the opening of the Our Land Our Life Our Future exhibition, a collaboration between the CLC and Desart.

“The exhibition is an inspired way to celebrate 40 years of land rights,” said Ms Perkins, the eldest daughter of the CLC’s first chair, Charlie Perkins.

“Our artists express the enduring bond between community, culture and country that is central to our identity as the First Peoples of this land.

In bringing together the work of artists from across Central Australia, CLC and Desart will emphatically show that this is Aboriginal land – always was, always will be.”

“We chose the Tangentyere Artists Gallery for the exhibition to honour the important role town campers played in the early days of land rights,” said CLC director David Ross.

Our Land Our Life Our Future will run for a month and is an opportunity for Aboriginal workers from Desart member art centres to gain on the job training and experience in all aspects of curatorial practice.

Financial support from the Peter Kittle Motor Company, Newmont Australia and the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund made the land rights anniversary art award and the exhibition possible.

For images go to https://goo.gl/photos/Ymr2oNDpXd5U4Lx46

The Central Land Council has welcomed opposition leader Bill Shorten’s promise to double the number of indigenous ranger jobs if Labor wins the federal election.

“Today’s announcement backs one of Australia’s biggest Aboriginal success stories,” said CLC director David Ross.

“It’s a sound investment in our future generations, our shared environment and a long overdue example of politicians listening to Aboriginal people when they tell them what’s working.”

“Voters in remote communities no doubt would like to hear whether the Prime Minster also has more jobs and growth to offer them than working for the dole,” Mr Ross said.

He said the CLC is examining the detail of the announcement to determine whether it means ranger jobs in the southern half of the Northern Territory will increase from currently 100 to 200 if Labor wins the election.

“We hope that it will allow us to respond to increasing community demand and environmental need for more ranger jobs and double the number of CLC ranger groups in our region from currently 10 to 20 groups within the next three years.”

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be a ranger or a school kid in a remote community,” said Benjamin Kenny, co-ordinator of the CLC’s Kaltukatjara rangers in Docker River near the Northern Territory/Western Australian border.

Mr Kenny flew to Canberra late last year to lobby politicians for more ranger group funding.

His team of only six rangers operates on the smell of an oily rag to manage threats such as feral animals, weeds and fire across the five million hectare Katiti Petermann Indigenous Protected Area.

Australia’s newest IPA completely surrounds and dwarfs Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park.

“The men and women in our group are really happy about the announcement because it means more of their families can get proper jobs and training looking after country, together with our elders and children.”

“Most of our kids want to be rangers when they grow up. That helps to keep them at school but until now their chances of landing a ranger job have been very limited because there are so few of those jobs,” he said.

Mr Kenny said the CLC’s ranger program is so popular because it has been developed with Aboriginal people and combines the latest science with Aboriginal ecological knowledge.

“Our ancestors have worked on this country for thousands of years to protect it and look after it.

They were rangers before our time and everything that we are doing today is the same as what our ancestors have done.”

The CLC has called on Mr Turnbull to match Mr Shorten’s promise.

Related story : ABC Lateline story broadcast on 26/05/2016

Elected delegates from 75 remote communities and outstations across the south of the Northern Territory are travelling to Uluru today to vote for a new Central Land Council chair, deputy chair and Executive Committee.

The 90 delegates will also elect five members of the Aboriginals Benefit Account (ABA) Advisory Committee, which advises the Indigenous Affairs Minister on the expenditure of the royalties equivalent-funded community grants program.

Council has reserved two of the five positions for female delegates.

ABA Advisory Committee members and CLC delegates serve three year terms, with delegate elections for the current term of council concluding last week.

The leadership elections at Yulara Pulka outstation on Wednesday, 20 April, overseen by the Australian Electoral Commission, will use a preferential voting system.

Ahead of the vote, the new delegates will take part in an all-day induction at the Ayers Rock Resort on Tuesday, 19 April.

The session aims to help delegates to familiarise themselves with their responsibilities of determining the CLC policy and strategic direction, as well as with new legislation.

“The day is only the first step in the CLC’s ongoing governance capacity development program,” said CLC director David Ross.

“Our policy staff has teamed up with a locally experienced governance expert to design and deliver a program that meets the unique needs of our elected members and builds on their strengths.”

Council meets three times per year in different locations across the CLC region, while the Executive meets between Council meetings.

Delegates and Executive members also attend regional meetings in remote communities throughout the year.

Download the CLC’s governance manual (.pdf)