Central Australians are inevitably shaped and changed by geography, environment and history. It’s a place where people respond to huge and visible challenges – and have amazing stories to tell about the process.
Jakamara Nelson, who died last month, was six years older than the community in which he spent most of his 80 years: Yuendumu. The story of his life reflects the huge changes to people and policies that have taken place in Central Australia in those eight decades. I was fortunate to meet this influential Warlpiri man a few times in his later life, when he shared with me parts of his life story. It began at the pastoral station of Mount Doreen, where Jakamara’s father was a sheep herder. He wou...Read more
On a recent visit to Tennant Creek, I was pleased to discover that the house the late Bill Fullwood used to call the Gunyah was still standing. Built by Bill in the 1950s, using recycled wood and sheets of iron found in Darwin in the 1950s, the house is a great example of the “scrounge” mode of building that was prevalent in Central Australia for many decades. Seeing the old house, which is still occupied, brought back memories of an afternoon I spent with Bill about 20 years ago while I was...Read more
Alice Online is pleased to publish the eulogy to the late Peter Fannin, as presented at his funeral last month by his grand-neice Omanisa Ross. Peter, who died last month, will be widely remembered as a botanist who shared his knowledge of Central Australian plants with thousands of visitors to Uluru, and also as one of the key figures in the development of the Papunya Tula art movement. But as Omanisa’s eulogy reveals, these were only two aspects of Peter’s persona; musician, t...Read more
Author Russell Guy will be guest speaker at Author Talk at the Alice Springs Library is next Thursday, 4th June at 5PM No armchair social critic or Facebook cut-and-paste philosopher, author Russell Guy has clearly had his perspectives hammered out on the anvil of experience. As revealed in his recently released novel, Dry Crossing, the poetic imagination and eye for life’s oddities that made Guy’s radio play What’s Grafton To You is Rangoon To Me a cult classic has been shaped by decades...Read more
I was at a party in Spring Hill, Brisbane, when Billy McMahon conceded defeat to Gough Whitlam. It was the early days of the Bjelke-Petersen regime, and simple-minded university students like me, who had spent much of the last year learning the art of protest, were overjoyed by the news. Finally there was a serious crack in the cast-iron bubble of conservatism in which we had been trapped all our lives — not to mention a worthy opponent for Joh. For the first time in Australia, the things ...Read more
Jason Shilton Then there is one other type of call I get. Again it’s from the desert. “HELLO” I say bright and fresh and into the day then “hello” I say softer this time, when i realise it is the caller who never speaks. I listen and wait, humbly reverent to a tenuous link over awesome distance for this caller only seems to want to hear my voice, to confirm that I’m here. I can never be irritated or impatient or hang-up I’ve got open desert on the line – the wind blows softly...Read more
Thousands of children throughout the Territory this week will each have their own reasons for looking forward to going back to school, wishing the holidays were a bit longer – or in many cases, both. In their years at the Alice Springs Steiner School, the 12 year-olds in Noel Ferry’s class have always had at least one treat to look forward to on the first day of every term: What has Noel put on the blackboard this time? One of the pillars of Steiner or Waldorf educati...Read more
As he transformed the opening of Alice Springs artist Moss’s retrospective exhibition at Araluen Arts Centre last Friday night into a moving pageant, Jungian psychologist Craig San Roque engagingly honoured the role of the artist in our lives, illuminating what is right of front us but so often remains unwitnessed . He also reminded us of the power of art itself, standing outside the artist, who becomes a conduit for messages that reverberate timelessly, in many forms, though all human cu...Read more
Beat a drum loudly for unassuming local hero Pete Lowson of Alice Springs, yesterday awarded the Order of Australia. Pete’s dedicated work reminds us of the power of music to transform young lives. Pete Lowson started up Drum Atweme eight years ago under the auspices of Tangenetyere Council – as he put it in an interview he gave me for Land Rights News last year , “to give a chance for kids in town camps to explore music”. In the process many have begun explore the world as well. “The ...Read more
Friends and family of Harry Leverdingen gathered at the Olive Pink Botanic Garden in Alice Springs earlier this week to farewell the long-term Alice Springs resident, recently of Kangaroo Island. Harry’s former partner Heather delivered this evocative eulogy. Harry was unique. Yes, everyone’s unique; but I think it’s fair to say that Harry was a little more unique than most – maybe even a little eccentric? He was tall and imposing at 6’8″; when people asked ho...Read more
Gondwana Gallery’s Roslyn Fremont has paid a moving tribute to her friend, the great western desert artist D. Napangardi, who died last weekend in a car accident. She described Napangardi as “the greatest Warlpiri artist” , who was recognised for her independent and innovative style and her profound understanding of space. Speaking with the ABC’s Nadine Maloney, Rosyln said Napangardi was “very delicate, very different, and she didn’t take direction easily.&...Read more
Patrick Nelson, Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University will this week deliver training in Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) in Central Australia as part of a ground-breaking program (see notes in Italics below this story) to develop 16 music industry “rangers” across the Northern Territory. Contemporary Music Lecturer Cain Gilmour said the community-based training was an integral part of a three-year program to build capacity for a more robust Indigenous music industry. “The rang...Read more
