Arrernte elder says no one asked as bulldozers hit Alice Springs site

Heavy machinery is already digging at the Anzac Hill precinct in Alice Springs, and senior Arrernte elder Doris Stuart Kngwarreye says nobody gave her a heads-up. She first heard about the $8.8 million multicultural centre when bulldozers fired up last week. Her response was blunt: no one invited her to hear about it, and she describes the spot as a women's site.

The Northern Territory government went public with the plan in February, placing the centre on the old Alice Springs High School grounds. On Wednesday in Alice Springs, Chief Minister Lia Finnochiaro rejected the idea that custodians needed to be consulted, saying it was fine to reuse an existing Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority certificate. She summed up the process in one question: why would they?

Concerned resident Jodie Clarkson was among the group who broke the news to Stuart and her family and has kept returning to the site to witness what's happening. She says two of the senior Aboriginal women had no clue until they were told. Clarkson also spoke with the foreman, who showed her an AAPA certificate dated 2018 — issued for ATSIAGA, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery of Australia, not for this project. That certificate names rocky outcrops, corkwood trees and vegetation that must be protected.

The gallery behind that paperwork was announced in 2017 as the National Aboriginal Art Gallery before being rebadged. It drew controversy over a proposal to build it in the same precinct and tear down the local Anzac Oval sports ground in the process.

Finnochiaro says the build proceeds no matter what. She calls it a great construction investment and community asset, and insists her government won't let people stop progress. She points out the land is NT government-owned and already disturbed, noting a high school once stood there and has since been demolished, and that no sacred sites in the area are being impinged on.

Stuart ties the fight back to 1953, when Arrernte people were upset that Alice Springs High School went up between Anzac Hill and the Todd River without permission from traditional owners. She says the government is pushing ahead with whatever it wants. Multicultural Community Services Central Australia, which will use the centre, declined an interview but said in a statement it was concerned the location sits in the same area as a women's sacred site, and that it is engaging with traditional custodians to clarify its role. An NT government spokesperson said construction will be complete in 2027.