HUNTED AS OUTLAW 40 YEARS AGO. WINNER OF THE ALICE PRIZE TODAY. Report by ELISABETH ATTWOOD.
Billy Benn was hunted as a killer in 1967.
He was acquitted of muder on the grounds of insanity.
Last Friday, 40 years later, he became the 34th winner of Central Australia's most prestigious art award, the national Alice Prize, for this landscape work, inspired by country around Harts Range, where he grew up.
After working for 20 years in a sheltered workshop, Mr Benn's career as an artist took off just half a dozen years ago, and is blossoming with shows in elite galleries of Sydney and Melbourne. Billy Benn Perrurle has been named the winner of the 34th Alice Prize: and behind his extraordinary piece, Artetyerre, lies an extraordinary life.
Born at Artetyerre (Harts Range) in 1943, he worked there from the age of 10 in mica mines and later droving sheep and cattle.
His sisters, the artists Ally Kemerre and Gladdy Kemerre, taught him how to paint on skin when he was a teenager. His father made traditional artefacts, wooden sculptures, boomerangs and spears. With this heritage it was likely that Benn Perrurle would have eventually come to art.
But on the fateful day of August 5, 1967 he shot a man, killing him, and in the subsequent hunt for him, he wounded two police officers.
Benn Perrurle lived as an outlaw with his wife for 14 days until tracker Teddy Egan discovered him and he was handed over to police.
He was later acquitted of murder on the grounds of insanity.
Just over 30 years later his idiosyncratic paintings of his country burst onto the Aboriginal art scene, when he was exhibited in Desert Mob 2000 (this followed an earlier exhibition that year featuring works by disabled artists).
It was discovered he'd been painting since he began working at the Bindi Centre (a service for people with intellectual and development disabilities) over 20 years ago, mainly gardening and in the sheet metal workshop. Subsequently Bindi set up a professional art development program for Benn Perrurle and other artists, Bindi Centa Arts.
Since 2000 his work has been shown in both solo and group exhibitions at galleries around the country including the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne where the judge of the 2006 Prize, Frances Lindsay, is the deputy director.
Artetyerre is an acrylic on linen of the Harts Range landscape. It signifies an important development in Aboriginal art, said Ms Lindsay when she announced the $15,000 prize at Araluen last Friday.
The announcement that Benn Perrurle had won was met with huge applause: obviously a popular winner.
Ms Lindsay told the Alice News: "[The work] takes us into a whole new era through his immediate touch and the lyrical aspect of his use of colour: the washes, the use of brushwork," said Ms Lindsay.
"I see it as a trajectory of [the] Albert Namatjira [style].
"I've got to know his work for a number of years.
"Over the next few years we'll be seeing a lot more of him.
"I am impressed with his sense of his own land, his own country. It is very real and very strong. The vibrant and intense colours show passion, immediacy. There is an urgency in his painting.
This [Artetyerre] is compelling and extends our understanding of the tradition."
Valued at $12,000 Artetyerre was painted this year after Benn Perrurle went back to his birthplace and the scene of the dramatic events of his early life for the first time. The visit profoundly moved him and he painted the image of the range from "memory and feeling".
His sensitive use of colour portrays the daily evolving shades of Central Australia's hills: purple, indigo, brown, pink are gently juxtaposed to create a magical wash.
The plaque alongside his winning work says: "He wants to paint every hill from his country and then he will stop, then he will return home."
Another Central Australian artist was highly commended by Ms Lindsay: George Tjungurrayi untitled work is a large (122cm x 122cm) acrylic on linen, depicting a dreaming story associated with the soakage of Tjangimanta, north east of Kiwirrkura in Western Australia.
"He is a master painter," said Ms Lindsay.
"And this is particularly beautiful."
Viv Mehes' Without Anchor, Without Root was also highly commended.
The unusual piece is a black and white photograph of the contemporary urban Melbourne landscape, overlaid with an image on voile of the face of a man called Mohammad.
The effect is that Mohammad's face seems to drift over the city as a ghost, rising and falling with the air currents: he represents a refugee trying to build a new life in Australia.
Mehes is a documentary photographer, and says Mohammad symbolises the hope, dreams and survival of refugees living on temporary protection visas. "The work brings a human face of refugees to the wider public and may symbolise the salvaging of human dignity for them and us all," she says.
Territory artists who feature in the exhibition include Michelle Hawkins, Pamela Lofts, Wentja Napaltjarri, Walangkura Napanangka, Carolyn Rannersberger, Neridah Stockley, Marina Strocchi, Bronwyn Wright and Rod Moss.
Moss' Le Dejeuner sur Teppa Hill (Xavier's Camp) depicts a scene in contemporary Alice Springs: a group Aboriginal people eat over a fire, with unmistakable icons of Alice behind them, both manmade and natural (the Stratco shop is juxtaposed with the McDonnell Ranges).
"People will love this," said Ms Lindsay.
"It's a terrifically vibrant painting of local life.
"I wouldn't be at all surprised if he's a strong contender for the people's choice award."
Political themes feature strongly in the exhibited works.
"Artists working in the 21st century can't ignore the world around them," said Ms Lindsay.
"The political theme comes through in powerful ways but it's very subtle, it's not in your face politics."

WILL NEW DOLE RULES WORK BETTER?. Report by ELISABETH ATTWOOD.
Indigenous people in Alice Springs should not use their cultural obligations as an excuse for not taking jobs, says Sharman Stone, the Federal Minister for Workforce Participation.
She was responding to an inquiry by the Alice News about why there are 795 people on the dole and approximately167 vacancies for unskilled workers in the Alice region. There is ample anecdotal evidence that Alice Springs is one of the easiest places to get a job.
Dr Stone said a far more stringent regime will be brought in on July 1 to prevent recipients dodging work.
However, many recipients break the current rules, without sanctions being applied.
The News put to Dr Stone that if the current regulations are being flouted with impunity, is it not likely the practice will continue after July 1?
For example, three quarters of the job seekers listed with the Tangentyere Job Shop are failing to make the required contact with at least seven prospective employers a fortnight, and the others are at liberty to list as a "contact" the occasions they drop into the job shop.
In town last week, Dr Stone said the puzzle of high unemployment with a high number of job vacancies in Alice Springs is "the million dollar question".
She said: "In Alice Springs there are a lot of hotels and resort-style enterprises which are very, very anxious about their workers who leave very quickly, who are often holiday backpackers.
"Retail, hospitality, mining, pastoral, administration, health services: all these areas have a shortage of workers around Alice Springs.
"There is so much work available in the community there has never been a better time to get a job.
"We expect people unemployed in Alice Springs to genuinely seek employment.
"Everyone is under obligation to do a decent day's work for a decent day's pay and if you are going to be absent you should give proper notice.
"Non-Indigenous people also have cultural obligations and parenting responsibilities.
"Sorry business can take a lot of time. But it's a matter of work-life balance."
Dr Stone says the way around taking time off might be by job sharing, shift work or part time work.
If a person is "a very loyal and productive member of the workforce", she says an employer should be able to accommodate occasional time off for family reasons, as they commonly do, for instance, to allow people to pick up and drop off children from school.
Unemployed people across Australia are expected to make seven "contacts" every two weeks: a contact is a job interview or application, or a meeting with an employment agency or even a job search on the internet.
"There has always been an expectation in Alice Springs that people will genuinely seek out seven contacts a fortnight and work hard to take those jobs which are under their noses," says Dr Stone.
But this simply isn't happening, say the people on the ground.
Manager at Tangentyere Job Shop Peter Strachan says that only 25 per cent of the unemployed people registered with his organisation are making the seven contacts.
"A person being asked to find seven employers per fortnight would be a highly marketable person.
"If a person has been long term unemployed with multiple barriers like lack of education, skills or experience in performing jobs available, health issues and, in some cases, if they don't have a strong recent work history, it is impractical.
"There are also a limited number of employers people can approach every two weeks.
"The expectation of Job Network organisations is to be working with that person to develop their skills to bring them closer to the labour market and refer them to jobs which are suitable for them."
But he agrees there are jobs which need no education or skills, such as washing dishes.
What about jobs like hotel porters? Says Mr Strachan: "You need to be able to read the labels on suitcases. Literacy and numeracy are a challenge for many of our clients."
Dr Stone defines suitable employment as "a job which a person is physically and intellectually capable of doing that is a reasonable commutable distance from where they live".
The zero tolerance "no work no pay" rules comes in on July 1.
Employment agencies responsible for helping people find jobs will report breaching, that is, people who aren't actively seeking work or remaining in employment for a decent length of time, to Centrelink, the government instrumentality which pays unemployment benefits.
"Taxpayers have a right to know there are consequences for those who abuse the system," says Dr Stone.
"After July 1 there are real consequences if you refuse to take a job or an interview if a job is eminently suitable for you.
"It will be more difficult to leave [a job] without good cause and then step back into unemployment benefit.
"If you've been offered appropriate work or you're given a position and leave without good cause or you don't go to a job interview without good cause, or you fail to go to an appointment with a Job Network provider you will lose your entitlement."
She says this isn't a hard-hearted stance. "If it will mean your children are going hungry we've got another system in place: another agency will put food on your table, we have an obligation to children."

NEWS FRENZY OVER CHILD RAPE. COMMENT and ANALYSIS by ERWIN CHLANDA.
Public prosecutor Nanette Rogers' shocking disclosures on ABC TV about child abuse in Aboriginal society may have come at an opportune moment, as the Federal Government is making noises about bringing to an end the catastrophic mismanagement of indigenous affairs.
But would Ms Rogers (pictured) not have saved lives and spared agony if she had disclosed earlier her dossier of sex and other crimes against children spanning 15 years?
And is it not a disturbing indicator of a tragically dysfunctional society - mainstream Territory society, not only its Aboriginal communities - that, together with her husband, the head of Family and Community Services (FaCS) in Central Australia, whose responsibility is the protection of children, Ms Rogers could have made a difference years ago?
When the scandal about which everyone in the Territory knew, and everybody outside it didn't want to know, unfolded in a very predictable manner (once media had decided this was going to be the story of the week), Chief Minister Clare Martin said: "We have quadrupled the budget for child protection from under $8 million to nearly $32 million."
Pity the Ms Martin omitted to say that the Commonwealth Grants Commission had been taking the view for years that the NT would need to be spending three times as much to get the portfolio up to scratch (see box this page).
For decades the NT's per capita funding from Canberra for the NT has been about five times the national average, precisely because of the kind of issues aired across the nation, and the world, in the past two weeks.
This discrepancy is surely the kind of stuff on which the NT Council of Social Services (NTCOSS) would express a view.
It didn't.
Two years ago the NTCOSS president at the time, Geoff Harris, let fly in the Alice Springs News.
On May 4, 2004, he said there had been enough plans and reviews and it was time for the NT Government "to put services on the ground".
Mr Harris said the government "should invest in social development ... at the same level of resources and commitment as the government has demonstrated towards economic and business development ... moving beyond strategies and reviews, and providing growth funds for new and expanded services on the ground".
There should be "investment in community-based prevention and early intervention strategies not just crisis response and tertiary services".
Mr Harris said NT Governments [including CLP ones] had over the past five to six years been dramatically underspending in the area of community and welfare services.
"Community services in the NT are consistently unable to meet client needs and are turning people away from welfare services at a greater rate than the rest of the nation.
"Over the past two years the Labor Government has invested additional budget resources for social development primarily into addressing law and order and anti social behaviour issues and into tertiary response services. It has not however invested the same level of resources into community based prevention and early intervention services and strategies."
Now that Central Australia has become a shame job across the nation and the world, is Barry Hansen, the current Darwin-based NTCOSS president, adding anything to what Alice-based Mr Harris had to say two years ago?
No, Mr Hansen is not.
He's not commenting because he's in discussion with the government, says his executive officer Wendy Morton. It seems the NT government has nothing to fear from NTCOSS.
And so the national debate has quickly become as irrelevant as it was emotional.
Clare Martin: "I believe that the situation of overcrowded housing is a key contributing factor to family violence ... an ageing asset base has meant that levels of absolute need are rapidly increasing."
Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon chimes in: "Decent housing, good education, working infrastructure, access to real jobs and a sense of control over their own lives," is what's needed.
"Indigenous communities throughout Australia are enduring the consequences of systematic neglect and deprivation, which in the Territory is down to [Mr Brough's] CLP mates."
In an ongoing investigation the Alice News has found that a large number of bush dwellings, built for Aboriginal people, are empty, vandalised, or only sporadically occupied (May 18).
Bob Beadman, the chairman of the NT Grants Commission, who travels the bush extensively, commented on our story saying he'd made many similar observations.
We've put questions about obvious misspending of public housing money to the NT Government.
"Given the absurdity of the question, I have no intention of supplying you with information" was the reply from Chips Mackinolty, one of the Martin government's numerous minders, on December 8, 2004.
Mr Snowdon for most of the last three decades has been either in Parliament or working for the Central Land Council. He was a founder 30 years ago of the dead-end CDEP "work for the dole" scheme, and possibly the last person in Australia to still think it's a good thing.
That's apart from the politicians of each persuasion who have appreciated the scheme as a device for obscuring the real unemployment figures.
So what's been keeping Mr Snowdon from contributing to "access to real jobs and a sense of control over their own lives" for Aboriginal people in the bush?
They now own half the Territory. There are demonstrated opportunities for horticulture and pastoralism on their land. The potential of tourism is breathtaking.
Clare Martin: "The extent of alcohol and substance abuse prevalent in some communities means that wide ranging strategies are required, addressing supply, law and order and rehabilitation issues. "The Northern Territory Government has recently outlined a series of initiatives in this area."
You don't say. After five years of government by Labor, which touted "we're ready for government" in 2001, they're still "outlining initiatives"?
In a matter of days the Territory's Liquor Commission could bring down measures making alcohol unavailable to the irresponsible user, eliminating the most pernicious cause of "the problem".
The savings in costs for police, health, courts and prisons would be astronomical. Alice alderman David Koch put out a proposal last week how that could be accomplished (Alice News, May 18).
This would not require a cent of the money Ms Martin is calling for: "The Commonwealth should provide an extra $50 million a year over the next decade - that's just a fraction of the Federal Government's $10 billion budget surplus."
What for? More police, courts, hospitals and prisons?
Soon every man and his dog gave their two bobs' worth, most of it harking back to the fruitless rhetoric of the 80s. Some samples:
John Paterson, the Chair of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) calls for an "immediate meeting between Federal and NT ministers and key Aboriginal stakeholders to discuss solutions [such as] adequate health care, police services, education, housing and economic opportunity [to deal with the] legacy of neglect.
Mr Snowdon: "Any meeting that precludes local involvement, local ownership, local responsibility and local solutions will inevitably fall short." He doesn't explain why all the past meetings that met those criteria have fallen short, for more than a quarter of a century.
Oxfam: "Decent housing, education and healthcare are not ... available to Indigenous Australians" and the "chronic under-funding of basic services ordinary Australians take for granted have contributed to this crisis."
Ms Martin wants Canberra to restore funding for the juvenile diversion scheme. Should they really?
Investigations by the Alice News have revealed that two programs, in Papunya and Imampa, under the supervision of the NT police, spent more than half a million dollars each, without any coherent explanation of any benefits: all NT police could tell us in each case was that local children had the opportunity of participating.
Ms Martin wants Federal funds so that Tangentyere can "reinstate child care / family day care in remote areas".
Excuse me? Child care on communities where practically all parents are unemployed?
Apart from the shameful buck-passing and posturing (will Clare meet Mal - yes, now she will; what kind of talk fest will she attend - Mal's not, but COAG's yes) the shouting match is thin on the copious opportunities for Aboriginal self-help, Canberra's mutual obligation principle notwithstanding. When the media hoo-ha winds down, let us who are in the Central Australian thick of things keep a keen eye on the shake-out.
The public will judge the quality of our leadership, paltry so far, on the results of immediate action that gets away from the notion that everything can be fixed by education, good will and lots of money for feel-good projects.

BUCKETFULS OF CASH FOR THE WRONG END. Report by ERWIN CHLANDA.
How much money does the Territory need to provide average services to its citizens? About four times as much, per capita, as the rest of the nation.
That's the - ongoing - assessment of the Commonwealth Grants Commission which gives advice to the Federal Government which in turn divvies up the nation's GST cake. The commission's aim is not to put a Sydney opera house in every town, but to allow people who live in, say, the outback to enjoy government-supplied services and amenities similar to those of other Australians.
The commission's annual report says "each State should be given the capacity to provide the average standard of State-type public services, assuming it does so at an average level of operational efficiency and makes an average effort to raise revenue from its own sources".
The grants are "untied" which means the Territory, as all other jurisdictions, can spend its $2.05b (for 2006-07) as it pleases. That's $10,000 per head of population compared to the national average of $2600.
"New South Wales, the State with the strongest fiscal capacity, would receive $2005 per capita to give it the Australian average capacity to deliver services. The Northern Territory would receive $9935 per capita more to give it the same capacity," says the commission.
The fact that the NT spends its money so blatantly in conflict with the assessments by the Grants Commission has been a bone of contention for a long time, under the CLP as well as Labor.
Instead of looking after its most needy, Paul Everingham built the Ayers Rock Resort and Clare Martin is building the Darwin Waterfront.
The Grants Commission makes no recommendations. But it is clear that the Territory's massive funding is a consequence of its "indigenous influences, scale of service provisions and population dispersion," as they are called in the jargon.
And yet the NT spends its money on other purposes, disproportionately to the need. The child abuse scandal that erupted across the nation was clearly linked with the "Family and Child Services" funding - or the lack of it.
This is how the Grants Commission assessed the spending necessary to create "average" conditions in Family and Child Services in the Territory, and what the government actually spent: roughly just a third.
2000-01 $89.9m $23.5m 2001-02 $102.0m $27.1m 2002-03 $104.8m $31.1m 2003-04 $116.9m $36.8m 2004-05 $122.7m $46.4m
South Australia, NSW and Victoria, always spend more on Family and Child Services than the Grants Commission assessment, and WA most of the time. Queensland spends always less but never less than half.

BUFFEL BIG THREAT YET LESS CASH FOR STUDY. Report by ELISABETH ATTWOOD.
A new look buffel grass seems set to overwhelm our native vegetation even faster then previously feared.
New hybrids can flourish in areas thought safe, threatening to colonise half of the continent.
But for the first time, facts and not passion has driven a conference between pastoralists, scientists and environmentalists on the non-declared weed.
A three year research project funded by Desert Knowledge CRC has relied on the first genetics work done on buffel grass.
However, lack of ongoing funding means that there is still not enough data for a management strategy to be drawn up for conservation lands.
In Arizona, buffel grass is a declared noxious weed, yet in Central Australia debate continues on whether it is harmful or not.
Around 100 different strains of buffel grass have been introduced to Central Australia since European settlement.
How many strains are now in existence is not known. National research has predicted that as much as 68 per cent of the rangelands across Australia could become covered by buffel grass.
It's believed that buffel grass played a role in the localised extinction of the nationally endangered floodplain skink around Alice Springs. Local anecdotal evidence suggests the central netted dragon won't survive in areas of buffel grass.
Colleen O'Malley presented the results of the project, a collaboration between CSIRO, Parks and Wildlife, Threatened Species Network and James Cook University.
The hybridisation occurring between buffel grass strains "has massive implications for pastoral and conservation management", says Dr O'Malley.
"The full implications are uncertain but for example, buffel grass that was originally selected for its nutritional value for cattle may hybridise with less palatable strains, potentially creating a strain which is useless to the pastoral industry."
The results of the genetics research were finalised two weeks ago: scientists at James Cook University analysed samples from Woodgreen station and also Watarrka National Park and compared the genetic profiles with commercially sourced varieties.
The results show that the plantings at Woodgreen that originated from known varieties like Molopo, Numbank and Gayndah no longer show the same genetic profiles as the original varieties.
Roy Chisholm of Napperby Station has less than 1% of his land covered by buffel grass.
He sees the genetic hybridisation as a potentially serious issue but says genetic husbandry could be a potentially useful tool to counter it.
"I was really excited about the new genetic work and would like to see it expanded to develop strains that are more palatable and less invasive. It has huge benefits.
"It's a longer term project and more funding is needed."
He acknowledges that hybrids could be dangerous though.
"There is no research into what we should be targeting as unpalatable or as productive.
"We need to have scientific research so we have the facts and not just the emotion."
Rod Cramer of Temple Bar station was less positive about the potential of hybridisation.
Mr Cramer is unique among pastoralists for despising buffel: his family's property is on a floodplain downstream from Simpson's Gap where a lot of planting of buffel occurred.
75% of his land is covered by the grass, mostly varieties not palatable for cattle.
He says that hybridisation will eventually result in unpalatable, unstoppable strains across all pastoral land.
"It might be five or 500 years away, I don't know.
"But it has increased exponentially over the past wet years in a surprising and impressive way."
Mr Cramer and his brother lost six stud cows to complications developed because of over-grazing on buffel, two years ago. Too much buffel can cause oxalate poisoning which can result in a cow being too weak to give birth. Both the cow and the calf die.
"None of these blokes [other pastoralists] have experienced that.
"Where I am now is what eventually will happen to the pastoral industry as a whole if nothing changes.
"Alarm bells should be going off. No one would think it OK for their herd to be hybridising uncontrolled."
But for Dick Cadzow of Mount Riddock station, buffel grass is "behaving the way we want it to".
Now about 50 per cent of his land is covered by buffel grass but he's confident it won't damage his property.

BEING SPECIAL IN A SPECIAL PLACE. Report by KIERAN FINNANE.
Peter Tiller, the owner of Headlines hair salon in Alice Springs, has won his third highly commended award at this year's L'Oreal Colour Trophy awards.
The results of the combined South Australia and Northern Territory finals were announced in Adelaide last week.
His entry, a photograph of local model Asta Hill with shocking red, cropped hair, was the only entry from the NT to be awarded a highly commended.
But Tiller says he wants to aim higher, and believes the NT should be recognised as a state on its own.
"I was disappointed not to get into the finals but South Australia is the toughest state: they usually win the national trophy."
Tiller's name perfectly reflects his nature: he's steering himself (and his staff at Headlines) to national industry recognition.
Last year his Central Australian-inspired creativity helped him win the state division of The Face, a competition held by Redken in Sydney.
He's also been entered twice for Australian Hairdresser of the Year.
"Since we've entered these competitions, our profile has developed," says Tiller.
"I've enjoyed the fact that our peers recognise that we're doing good quality work, that we're not some back of beyond place full of people with no style," he says.
"They don't expect to see what we do here and we have a lot of respect within the industry: people realise it's taken a lot for the business to get to where it has, in a remote, regional area.
"We want to offer the styles and techniques that you'd get anywhere else in Australia. And we want to continue to grow. And we're definitely moving forward. That's what's been motivating me to keep coming to work every day. "I've always wanted to keep myself creatively stimulated, and keep the staff stimulated.
"I couldn't cope with living in Alice Springs and being mediocre."
Tiller has been entering his styles and techniques into the L'Oreal Colour Trophy for eight years now. A national competition with around 3,000 entries, it's become one of the most prestigious in the world.
"I still want the big one," he says, praising the efforts of his staff who also entered this year.
Using Central Australian locations for shoots have become Tiller's standout style that is getting him noticed. The set of stunning images he submitted for the Hairdresser of the Year competition are uniquely from Alice Springs: male and female models pose by unmistakable red earth and rocks.
"It's a signature for me. In Sydney when I went to the Australian Hairdresser of the Year, there were 50 collections up on the wall. But everybody knew which was mine because it was different.
"Everyone else's pictures were shot in the city. Ours were at Rainbow Valley."
Last year, the salon held a charity fashion, hair and beauty show, The Hottest Ticket in Town, and it was reported on in two industry magazines. "That's huge for us. It's developed our profile so much interstate. We get asked to comment on hairstyles for magazines now which is a real milestone for us," says Tiller.
Developing local talent is something Tiller feels strongly about. As well as having a relationship with photographers at Moving Pictures, he always uses local stylists, designers and models. "We have gorgeous people in Alice Springs. Whereas other hairdressers have agencies to find models, I find the girl and then create the look."
He discovered Asta Hill four years ago, who models in the current The Resident magazine (Tiller did her hair). His latest find is 14 year old Lara Wood who is in his latest collection and Colour Trophy entries.
He says fashion spreads like this are changing the view Australia has of Alice Springs. "We need more of it to get the Territory out there as a cosmopolitan place. I hope I can do this by promoting Alice Springs the way I am."
After living in Alice Springs for 23 years, Tiller is honest when he says it can be difficult being a creative hairdresser in a remote location.
"I often think about moving but I've spent so many years here and put in so much effort that I wouldn't walk away from it.
"I'm happy to spend a week away but I enjoy coming back.
"No one has landscapes like this in their background.
"I'm probably different from the average Australian male. But Alice Springs people are very cultured, very well travelled people. They know what's out there. They are broad-minded. They know where they're at in life and are usually here by choice.
"Alice Springs is a very special place. Everyone needs to be more positive about it and move it forward."

THE FORTUNATE ONES. Report by ELISABETH ATTWOOD.
Peter Tiller, the owner of Headlines hair salon in Alice Springs, has won his third highly commended award at this year's L'Oreal Colour Trophy awards.
The results of the combined South Australia and Northern Territory finals were announced in Adelaide last week.
His entry, a photograph of local model Asta Hill with shocking red, cropped hair, was the only entry from the NT to be awarded a highly commended.
But Tiller says he wants to aim higher, and believes the NT should be recognised as a state on its own.
"I was disappointed not to get into the finals but South Australia is the toughest state: they usually win the national trophy."
Tiller's name perfectly reflects his nature: he's steering himself (and his staff at Headlines) to national industry recognition.
Last year his Central Australian-inspired creativity helped him win the state division of The Face, a competition held by Redken in Sydney.
He's also been entered twice for Australian Hairdresser of the Year.
"Since we've entered these competitions, our profile has developed," says Tiller.
"I've enjoyed the fact that our peers recognise that we're doing good quality work, that we're not some back of beyond place full of people with no style," he says.
"They don't expect to see what we do here and we have a lot of respect within the industry: people realise it's taken a lot for the business to get to where it has, in a remote, regional area.
"We want to offer the styles and techniques that you'd get anywhere else in Australia. And we want to continue to grow. And we're definitely moving forward. That's what's been motivating me to keep coming to work every day. "I've always wanted to keep myself creatively stimulated, and keep the staff stimulated.
"I couldn't cope with living in Alice Springs and being mediocre."
Tiller has been entering his styles and techniques into the L'Oreal Colour Trophy for eight years now. A national competition with around 3,000 entries, it's become one of the most prestigious in the world.
"I still want the big one," he says, praising the efforts of his staff who also entered this year.
Using Central Australian locations for shoots have become Tiller's standout style that is getting him noticed. The set of stunning images he submitted for the Hairdresser of the Year competition are uniquely from Alice Springs: male and female models pose by unmistakable red earth and rocks.
"It's a signature for me. In Sydney when I went to the Australian Hairdresser of the Year, there were 50 collections up on the wall. But everybody knew which was mine because it was different.
"Everyone else's pictures were shot in the city. Ours were at Rainbow Valley."
Last year, the salon held a charity fashion, hair and beauty show, The Hottest Ticket in Town, and it was reported on in two industry magazines. "That's huge for us. It's developed our profile so much interstate. We get asked to comment on hairstyles for magazines now which is a real milestone for us," says Tiller.
Developing local talent is something Tiller feels strongly about. As well as having a relationship with photographers at Moving Pictures, he always uses local stylists, designers and models. "We have gorgeous people in Alice Springs. Whereas other hairdressers have agencies to find models, I find the girl and then create the look."
He discovered Asta Hill four years ago, who models in the current The Resident magazine (Tiller did her hair). His latest find is 14 year old Lara Wood who is in his latest collection and Colour Trophy entries.
He says fashion spreads like this are changing the view Australia has of Alice Springs. "We need more of it to get the Territory out there as a cosmopolitan place. I hope I can do this by promoting Alice Springs the way I am."
After living in Alice Springs for 23 years, Tiller is honest when he says it can be difficult being a creative hairdresser in a remote location.
"I often think about moving but I've spent so many years here and put in so much effort that I wouldn't walk away from it.
"I'm happy to spend a week away but I enjoy coming back.
"No one has landscapes like this in their background.
"I'm probably different from the average Australian male. But Alice Springs people are very cultured, very well travelled people. They know what's out there. They are broad-minded. They know where they're at in life and are usually here by choice.
"Alice Springs is a very special place. Everyone needs to be more positive about it and move it forward."

LETTER: 'I CANNOT LIVE LIKE MY GRANDPARENTS'.
Sir,- I sort of agree with Nadia Wright (Letters, May 11) about the land looking after itself. I grew up believing land was sacred, as many generations before me believed. But in those days, people didn't know how very old the Earth was. It has been around a lot longer than us and will probably keep going for a long time after we kill ourselves off with pollution.
So I face a dilemma. I believe that the land is sacred, because this is what I really feel in my heart. At the same time I don't live the lifestyle of my mother's ancestors and so can't really claim the same intimacy that they could. I also don't live there.
Sometimes I think I would like to sell my land so that I have the choice of buying a house elsewhere that actually belongs to me, but would only want to if sacred sites were fenced off and the new owners forced to recognise and protect them.
Like Nadia, I live in a modern world, but still feel a reverence for country, but I too believe that I don't have to be there physically to care for it. My heart is often torn between two ways of thinking. All I know for sure is that I can't live like my grandparents.
I also don't like non-Aboriginal people dictating what I should and should not do and think about country and other things.
Josh Smith
Nakara, Darwin

Bureaucracy blowout

Sir,- The current organisational chart from the Department of Health reveals that the Divisional Structure of the Department has grown from 44 senior positions to 57 senior positions, an increase of 24%. The growth areas appear to be in Information Services and Financial Services, a function that has been centralised to the Department of Corporate and Information Services (DCIS), but appears to have been duplicated by Health.
The structure under the Chief Information Officer has grown from six managers to nine directors and managers.
The Chief Financial Officer has grown five managers, five more than were listed in last year's flow chart.
The real concern is that the General Managers of our hospitals no longer directly report to the CEO of Health. They must now report through an Assistant Secretary (Acute Care Services), a person who has no health training.
This means that the CEO is becoming increasingly remote and what is more concerning is that it interposes an extra level of bureaucracy between the coalface and the Minister.
New additions also include a Director for Coordination and Planning, a Ministerial Liaison Manager and a Media and Communications Director.
This department has been growing at a phenomenal rate. Blowing budgets by tens of millions of dollars has become synonymous with its name.
What I would have liked to see is a Director for Making Sick People Better, but sadly no. What we get from the Martin Labor Government is a Ministerial Liaison Manager to advise the Minister so that he can make bad news look good.
Richard Lim
Shadow Minister for Health

Calling ex-Barnardos

Sir,- In January I set up a support group here in the UK to embrace every 'child' from every Barnardo home in every country. 
We know Barnardos sent thousands of children to Australia so there must be many  ex-Barnardo children out there in Australia, and their descendants.
We would dearly love to hear from them. We also know that careleavers need sometimes to talk about their experiences  whilst in their care / or lack of  care with Barnardos.
We know that many suffered extreme cruelty and abuse.
Our contact is http://groups.msn.com/thebarnardofamilygroup/welcome1.msnw
Sheila Rothwell
United Kingdom

ENOUGH TO MAKE A GROWN MAN CRY. COLUMN by ADAM CONNELLY.
I grew up in a suburb in Sydney called St Clair. 250 years earlier most folk knew that area as Dharruk country.
Ignorantly or perhaps sadly, I only know this because I looked it up. I wasn't taught it at school or if I was, it was mentioned so infrequently that I either didn't remember or was talking at the time.
That excuse doesn't wash here. We all know that the original inhabitants are the Arrernte, Warlpiri, Pitjantjatjara and other peoples.
We have a bilingual geography. Every place of note has both the Indigenous and English name.
Back home we have some indigenous names too. Warragamba, Parramatta and Cabramatta are all suburbs.
See, back in the day what happened was when the English brought over a bunch of poor Irish people they discovered that the people already living here didn't speak English or use the English alphabet.
Necessity prevailed and the new arrivals heard the words and wrote them down as they heard them. Kangaroo, Woomera and the like.
This was the way of things for some time. Aboriginal words phonetically transcribed into the English language. So what language were the people speaking who transcribed the indigenous words here? Welsh? Dutch? Ze Germans?
In what language does "Jinjaporta" get written down as Ltyentye Apurte? Can I buy a vowel, thanks Larry?
How are we meant to get an understanding of the local culture if we are spending 45 minutes trying to figure out how to say the word correctly? I'm sure some of the tourists who have sadly perished in Central Australia have done so because they spent too long trying to correctly pronounce the name on a walking trail sign. It's not that we're incapable of a decent approximation of the actual way these words are pronounced. Far from it. Those who have used the English language over the centuries have done very well at nicking words from other cultures. It's just the spelling that throws me.
I read the news on the radio and on my first day on the job I was confronted with Tangentyere (which I pronounced "Tangentire"), Irrkerlantye(you don't want to know) and Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra (this is when I cried).
It made me pine for the salad days of "Parramatta".
I can't help but think that perhaps this difficulty makes it just a bit harder for the non-aboriginal community to understand indigenous culture.
In a time when there's a fairly volatile atmosphere between the two cultures, it would be nice if frustration over not knowing how to pronounce the name of an organisation didn't have to add to the mix.
But enough of the preaching. Who's to blame for this alphabet soup? I have a theory.
In some universities you will find a small sub-culture living in little offices in winding corridors. These people generally wear corduroy and sprout facial hair. They are called "masters students". I would not be surprised, if early on in the piece, a university student with too much time and funding on their hands came to Central Australia.
Their mission was to take the indigenous languages of the region and write them down in English.
This student of linguistics as time went on got a bit too big for their boots and BLAMMO! I now can't pronounce the town down the road!
Well thank you very much. <br>

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