The art gallery should be “South of the Gap” was the main message of protesters at the foot of Anzac Hill yesterday, but a spokesman for Chief Minister Lea Finocchiaro confirmed this morning this is not what they are going to get.
One speaker at the protest said: “We won’t budge.”
The crowd of 60, young and old, had entered this major women’s sacred site through a pre-existing hole in the fence. Fittingly it was mostly women, about half of them black and half white, a sign of mutual support, as one of them put it.
The present conflict is likely to be a repetition of the row between the Labor government four years ago and a section of the Aboriginal community not unlike yesterday’s.
The Minister responsible for the gallery, Lauren Moss, said in May 2020: “Clearly no site will get consensus.”
It seems today’s CLP Chief Minister is creating a narrative inviting the same conclusion.
Last week, announcing a “pause” in project, she said: “We will make sure people in Alice Springs and associated communities understand next steps and come on the journey with us in developing the best facilities for the Red Centre.”
Said one woman: “They are trying to look like good guys. A political stunt, but it looks like doing the same thing as the last government, dominate over the voices of the people, and not consulting properly about what the people from here want.”
Another woman: “Is it for the rugby kind of audience, or first nations people, and their voices?”
Another woman: “There is no good will towards us.”
In 2020 Benedict Stevens, as Apmereke artweye a senior custodian for the town, having at first supported the Anzac Hill site, joined Apmereke artweye Doris Stuart and other custodians to demand the gallery to be sited south of The Gap,.
Mr Stevens subsequently reverted to tacit support of the Anzac Hill site. Ms Stuart has remained adamantly opposed. She was not present yesterday because of illness but her family was strongly represented.
A senior member of the Stuart family, Faron Peckham (pictured, with Yvonne Driscoll), as the last speaker, said the new government “drew in the rugby union and league fraternity … conquering and dividing.
“She [the Chief Minister] was very clear, it was not to be south of The Gap. She had to put her mark on the project.
“We won’t budge, because this site is significant. It forms part of our cultural landscape here. It’s about us. It’s about the future generation.
“Watching the destruction now, what future does it give them? What cultural identity does it give them when they live here? We’re not going to be directed by what they [the government] are saying.
“This is our country. You are our community. We share this country. We’ve always shared this country, on the premises of respect and acknowledgement. We should not become a byproduct of commercialisation.
“We’ve got to go back to the roots of who we are as people or as a community.
“She [the Chief Minister] had no mind about the anti social stuff that’s happening in this town. They seem to discard it. There is tourism and commercial interest other than what I call poverty. Building an art gallery here isn’t going to fix it.”
Politicians were thin on the ground yesterday. MLA for Braitling Joshua Burgoyne had been invited but didn’t show.
Town Council member Marli Banks was there and encouraged the crowd to attend question time at the next council meeting, and perhaps send a deputation to Darwin when Parliament resumes next month.
This article appeared on Alice Springs News on 16 September 2024.