By ERWIN CHLANDA

Four new charges have been laid against footballer Liam Jungarai Jurrah, all of aggravated assault, and against four different people.
This was revealed when he appeared in the Alice Springs Magistrate’s Court this afternoon for a preliminary examination on two charges, “unlawfully cause serious harm” and “armed with an offensive weapon at night”.
Defence counsel John McBride told Magistrate John Birch that he was having discussions with prosecutor Stephen Robson about further witnesses, civilian and police, and possibly a doctor.
The court was told that the events, from which the charges arise, in the Little Sisters town camp near Alice Springs’ Heavitree Gap, had involved two groups and most had consumed alcohol.
It is alleged one man was injured with a machete.
Mr Birch granted an application to cross-examine witnesses.
He set down an oral committal hearing for three days, July 23 to 25, and told Mr Jurrah that he would be “required to be here in Alice Springs” for that hearing.
Mr Jurrah today appeared by video link from Melbourne.
The football star from Yuendumu could be seen on the screen, seated at a table, his face expressionless, and wearing a dark jacket and a tie with diagonal red and blue stripes – the Melbourne Football Club colours.
He did not say anything.
Most of the gallery of about 10 people in the small court room were journalists.
Mr McBride asked Mr Birch to vary Mr Jurrah’s bail conditions so he could play football in Darwin, traveling there on July 19 and back to Melbourne on the 22nd.
Mr Birch said he was not in the habit “to vary bail conditions to pursue private matters”.

They are currently: Reside at an address in Victoria; not to contact relatives or any person nominated as a witness by the prosecution in these proceedings, to leave the Northern Territory and return to Victoria on the next available flight and not return to the Northern Territory except to attend Court; and report to the Officer in Charge of Police in Victoria.
Mr Robson said he would not object to the changes requested by Mr McBride..
Mr McBride said Mr Jurrah is a professional footballer.
Mr Birch asked what travel and accommodation arrangements would be made for Mr Jurrah and Mr McBride said he would find out.
Mr Birch said he would deal with the application this afternoon if the court’s business allowed it.
He adjourned the hearing with bail to continue.
Otherwise it was a relatively quiet day for the Alice Springs Magistrate’s Court, with a list of six domestic violence offenders, 10 in the SMART (Substance Misuse Assessment and Referral for Treatment) Court, and 55 accused of crimes.
Some days the court deals with 150 defendants.
Among the notable accused today was Gwendaline Inkamala (Damage To Property; Aggravated assault x 4; Damage To Property  x 2; Stealing; Armed with an offensive weapon x 2; Threatening behaviour in public place; and armed robbery.

Drawing by ROD MOSS. Defence counsel John McBride on his feet, Magistrate John Birch on the bench.

UPDATE 4:40pm: Magistrate John Birch has now varied Mr Jurrah’s bail conditions so he can play football in Darwin on the weekend before his three day oral committal hearing to begin on July 23.
Mr Jurrah will be allowed to travel from Melbourne to Darwin on July 19 “and remain there with a football manager for the purpose of undertaking his employment,” Mr Birch ordered.
“On the July 22 the defendant is to travel from Darwin to Alice Springs with a football manager for the purpose of attending his court appearance on the 23 July 2012.
“While in Alice Springs the defendant is to reside at a hotel and not leave those premises between 7pm and 7am.”
Meanwhile Mr Jurrah co-defendant Christopher Walker has been remanded in custody to July 23 for a three day oral committal. The alleged charges are the same as Mr Jurrah’s.

Back to Monkey Beans, that  also served 100% banana ice cream (hence the name!), Moroccan spiced pumpkin and capsicum bread (which I was up till very late on Thursday night baking) and the A-team that made it all happen! I was lucky to have another barista extraordinaire and another enterprising lady who was the face of the stall, a face that quickly became a morning favourite amongst the caffeine in need. Setting up the little stall was like setting up an extension of my lounge room. I found seeing this aesthetic in the amazing surrounds of the Ross River intensely gratifying.

Driving out to the site I couldn’t help exclaiming at how green the whole place had become. My friend from Sydney felt a little ripped off, her last visit to the Red Centre had been just that, red. The first night out there I forgot to include my boots and jacket in the swag and I awoke to frozen jacket, boots and icicles all over the canvas top. The late nights and very early starts in such a beautiful place combined with a great bunch of friends as colleagues and punters just seemed to make the ‘work’ a whole lot of fun.

Sunday night traditionally reserved for festival organisers, performers and the like held a much broader and captivated audience this year. And though quite a few people left after the sunset and moonrise viewing on the ridge, plenty more stayed on not wanting the weekend to end! By this stage for me though the recipe of late nights and incredibly early mornings (spent lying in my frozen swag guessing at the time by gauging the amount of sunlight that was hitting the hill) meant I had very little energy left over for the dance floor. I instead spent the evening experimenting with a camera, enjoying special company in the amazing landscape under a full moon light.

On the last morning a woman with $5.50 in her hand thanked us for not taking advantage of them as a captive audience in a closed market! I guess what I really liked was the liberation and sense of responsibility that comes with working for oneself. I’ve come a way from the experience feeling pretty good about it all. And just quietly if there weren’t already so many cafes in Alice (and probably a hundred other reasons not to) I have entertained little fancies of thought towards the opening of my own shop.

After so much anticipation, so much work and being part of such a fun weekend, it was a little deflating to come back into town. On the up side it was a glorious moment to have a shower and get all the dust out of everything, including my nose. Getting back into the swing of things at work was also a challenge but many of the faces coming for their morning coffees told of a similar feeling, which made me feel somewhat better! For some though – the new arrivals rolling into town just before the festival – their adventures in the Centre are just beginning with many more delights and destinations awaiting them.

By KIERAN FINNANE

Behind the sell-out theatrical tour of Namatjira, which has its final Australian performances in Hermannsburg and Alice Springs this week, is a three-year project for social change through art. Longer than that if the start is counted from Big hART’s Ngapartji Ngapartji project. I ask Scott Rankin, Big hART’s director, how he thinks the company’s involvement with people in The Centre has contributed to social change over this time.

Complex problems require solutions on many levels, he replies. The social change debate is mostly focussed on “quick fixes” to force change through action that is mostly “siloed” into a single government portfolio.

Big hART’s approach is to work at the grassroots level, with individuals. What is required from community and government is to support those individuals – he calls them “entrepreneurs” – who are effecting change in their lives, going beyond the usual “soft Left versus hard Right” adversarial approaches to the issues.

Art and culture are used as catalysts and perhaps never more pertinently than in the Namatjiira Project  which has at its heart an emblematic story of a man effecting radical change, through art, in his life, the lives of those around him and indeed the cultural and social life of the nation.

Namatjira, the theatre production, is in its own way an emblematic story, as the most successful current touring production in Australia. It shows, says Rankin, that good art, attracting widespread attention and acclaim in the country’s big cities, can come out of remote Central Australia.

The tour has also seen enormous development in the performing talent of young Derek Lynch, who takes on multiple roles as various people in Albert Namatjira’s life (Albert himself is played by the acclaimed Trevor Jamieson).

“Derek will be one of those performers about whom people say, ‘Have you seen the new Derek Lynch show?’” says Rankin.

The young artist Elton Wirri, who executes a marvelous panoramic landscape drawing during the show and is a descendant of Albert, is another of the show’s success stories: his work, in the watercolour tradition of his forebear, continues to gain recognition and value, and he is “a very together young man”, says Rankin.

The whole process has added to the knowledge of the Namatjira story. A woman who saw the show came forward with a hitherto unknown story about the last hours of the great man’s life: he asked to be moved from the white ward to the black ward in the Alice Springs Hospital, as he wanted to die with his countrymen.

Tonight the show will be staged in Hermannsburg, where a stage has been especially built in the area next to the chapel and sound checks were still being done at close to midnight last night, with everyone wrapped in blankets against the cold.

As part of the project Leni Namatjira, granddaughter of Albert and an artist herself, has worked with Big hART to develop an iPhone ‘watercolour’ app that will be launched by Senator Nigel Scullion, along with an advisor of MHR Warren Snowdon. The Hermannsburg schoolchildren will use the app in a “watercolour art off”, which they will then judge.

This is part of the on-going Namatjira Project. The theatre production is the high profile face of the project but when it winds down this week (a future performance in Hermannsburg, Germany is not yet confirmed), the project’s legacy will live on, in keeping with the philosophy of Big hART. More work in education, particularly in developing the digital literacy of young people, will be done through the Friends of the Namatjira Project. There is also a documentary film being made about the Namatjira or Hermannsburg School of painters.

I ask Rankin if he fears that participants in the project will feel somewhat bereft as the intensive involvement in the production draws to a  close, but he suggests that they will feel some relief from the responsibility of telling the story and the rigours of touring.

He characterises the whole project as a “generous risk-taking” on both sides. Participants have moved beyond the “cultural fear” that often marks the interactions of Aboriginal and settler Australians. As with love, their encounter has required leadership from both sides, generous responses to mistakes being made, with most of the progress coming from the lessons thus learned.

See also Kieran Finnane’s earlier interview with Rankin, Jamieson and Lynch, ‘A new take on the Namajtira story‘, and her response to the work in progress, ‘Namatjira: unexpected comedy‘.

PHOTO: Hamming it up big time – Derek Lynch as the Queen (left) and Trevor Jamieson.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Sweetness and light continued to prevail in Monday’s meeting of the town council committees, with not a hint of belligerent factionalism.
The jolly consensus allowed councillors to breeze through a big agenda probably in record time – at least so far as the meeting open to the public was concerned.
Even wild man Eli Melky didn’t pick a single fight, instead – “wearing his Rotary hat” – effusively thanked the council for supporting the hugely successful Bangtail Muster parade, and the council technical staff for their efforts, well beyond their call of duty, to keep the re-opened pool running.

(Director Technical Services Greg Buxton reported that the Y, outgoing managers of the pool, had reported they are still struggling to get staff.)
Not that there wasn’t fuel for fiery debates, topped by an initiative briskly gaining momentum. It is taking a leaf from Port Augusta’s book whose council, under the resolute leadership of Mayor Joy Baluch, controls a committee to which all agencies active in the town – State and Federal governments included – are brought to account once a month.
Now it’s time “we’re taking charge of what’s going on in this town,” as Cr Liz Martin put it on Monday.
Several councillors were not happy with a report by Director Corporate and Community Services Craig Catchlove, who is on holidays, and who had been asked to put together material for discussion about the Port Augusta strategies.
Cr Martin said she was “disappointed” in the report. The council needs to look at the strategies “more deeply” to see “what we’d like and what we don’t”.
Cr Chansey Paech also said the issues needed to be reported in “more depth” and while Alice Springs had an action plan it may benefit from incorporating elements of the Port Augusta model without re-inventing the wheel.
Cr Steve Brown agreed, saying that the Alice council wasn’t monitoring the entire management of the town.
Deputy Mayor Brendan Heenan said the council should “meet with the agencies concerned” in Alice Springs and they should be given the report.
The meeting agreed that this should be done and it will now go forward to the full council.
Cr Martin said there are parallel issues in the two towns yet there are “major differences in the dynamic”.
Port Augusta has relatively near to it some 20 communities, including Adelaide, with comprehensive services, whereas Alice is seen as “the big smoke” by people in some far-flung 250 communities in The Centre.
She said she will supply to the council a dot-point summary of the issues, as she researched them, including information about grog from Port Augusta going to Alice Springs without being captured in the Territory sales statistics.
Cr Martin described the recent coverage about alcohol being bought from interstate in the Alice Springs News Online as accurate.

Cr Martin also said there is a lot of vacant Crown Land in Alice Springs, as well as the rail corridor, where illegal drinking takes place.
CEO Rex Mooney added that 74% of the Alice Springs municipality is Crown Land.
He said the issue could be handled by a “sunset committee” active until the task is completed, and he would discuss the matter with Mr Catchlove who is due back on Monday.
Cr Martin said the initiative needed to be driven by the elected members, not by the director.
Hal Duell, the only person in the public gallery, expressed his concerns that the debate on the Port Augusta model would now move behind closed doors but Mr Mooney assured him it would re-surface at an open council meeting.

But minutes after, during a discussion about litter dumped in public places, the “c” word came up again, with Cr Martin suggesting that trash found near Ilparpa Road contained letters bearing people’s names and hinting this should be dealt with in confidential.

Mayor Damien Ryan asked for an update about the removal of abandoned vehicles and mentioned the one – trashed and abandoned – outside the Kindergarten L’il Antz, as reported in the Alice Springs News Online.
He said the vehicle, in a lay-by which is part of Sturt Terrace, was becoming a target for vandals and a hazard for parents and children frequenting the area.
CEO Rex Mooney explained that it depends on whether the road is a government road or a council road and if it is a government road “the council is not involved”.

The next question is whether the vehicle has current registration.
He said: “We, as a council, move very promptly. Occasionally we have to give the government office a reminder.”
In fact the vehicle had been removed before the meeting.
Not only were the big issues discussed harmoniously, the little ones were as well.
To the writer some appeared so very little that one wonders why they are being put before all the august councillors assembled: Why are some floor lights outside the civic centre not working? Should vehicles be allowed to drive indiscriminately on Head Street oval? The certifier has advised a handrail with underwater loop is not required for the aquatic centre.

PHOTOS: Top – The town council got a gong for its assistance to the Bangtail Muster parade. Middle – the photo councillors have in their wallets these days: Tough Port Augusta Mayor Joy Baluch. The Alice town council is taking a hard look at her grog and crime control measures. Above - an abandoned and vandalised car was a headache for a while. 

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Posters in Alice Springs offering $40,000 for disclosure of the “whereabouts” of Peter Falconio were the subject of a curiously cautious debate during the town council committee meetings last night.
Mr Falconio disappeared near Barrow Creek in 2001 and Bradley John Murdoch (pictured below, image Wikimurder) is serving a 28 year sentence for his murder.
Keith Allan Noble in his book “Find! Falconio – dead or alive” claims Mr Murdoch may be innocent.
Cr Eli Melky started the discussion by referring to a “recent attempt to capitalise on an unfortunate incident regarding a victim in or around Central Australia, I prefer not to mention the name” and asking council do something “if there is misleading and false advertising offering rewards” which may be in conflict of “stringent legislation”.
Director Technical Services Greg Buxton said he was unaware of the poster and – this being a public meeting – Cr Melky offered to talk to him “later, afterwards, if you like. I have some information I can show you” rather then disclosing it in the public part of the meeting.
This was an odd tack for Cr Melky who likes to be known as the champion of transparent government, and considering the story had run both in Australia and Europe.
Cr Liz Martin also suggested the matter may be raised in the “confidential” part of the meeting closed to the public, later in the evening.
Mayor Damien Ryan clearly thought this was a bit over the top: “I’ve been doing media throughout Europe for the last couple of days on this issue. I think if you look closer at it [the book author linked with the campaign] is on a mission”.
Mayor Ryan said: “I made the mistake saying he’s raising money before finding out he’s giving away the book free. I don’t know where we go with it.”
Cr Melky said whether or not the council acted on the matter, it would generate publicity but “we must protect our own brand, which is the Alice Springs town” and this would serve as notice to “those who willingly come in to capitalise on anything that happens [here].”
CEO Rex Mooney, asked to comment by Cr Martin, who was in the chair, said if the council wanted him to act (which in the end it did), he would be referring the matter “to the appropriate body”.

UPDATE May 17, 2012 07:30am: Meanwhile the author of the poster, and a book about the case, Keith Noble, has described Mr Ryan’s remarks as “rubbish”.
Dr Noble, who gives his address a location in inner city Vienna, Austria, says in a letter to the Mayor: “No doubt you are critical of those residents for posting the posters in Alice Springs.
“Your ill-conceived remarks surfaced on an English newspaper website” quoting Mr Ryan as saying that Dr Noble’s reward offer was a “cheap stunt”.
He says: “Yes, it is only A$40,000 (£25,000) but people have spoken to me about contributing more so the reward can be increased.
“But I think that your remark really relates to your inaccurate belief that the poster is part of a book promotion effort.
“To accuse good people who seek the truth as being involved with a cheap stunt is indescribably offensive to me.
“Surely you have not forgotten the gross miscarriage of justice that was the Dingo-Baby case. Murdoch was set up. It was a show trial.
“So-called evidence was manipulated, other evidence was withheld from the trial. There was not one shred of incontrovertible evidence
presented at the trial that proved guilt, or proved a murder took place.”

By ALEX NELSON

Does anyone know the meaning of “common sense”?
The reason for this query is due to a rather odd situation that has developed – still ongoing – in a parking bay adjacent to the L’il Antz childcare centre at the corner of Undoolya Road and Sturt Terrace; and which is also just down the laneway from where I live.
It transpires that late on Thursday, May 3, a police patrol pulled over an unroadworthy vehicle driving south along Sturt Terrace. There’s no dispute on this point, as the offending vehicle is in an appalling state and clearly unfit to be driven on the streets.
Unfortunately it was pulled up in the parking bay next to L’il Antz, where many parents drop off and collect their children each working day.
Initially that might not have been too much of a problem if, say, the offending car was parked there for a day while arrangements were made to tow it away. I first noticed it on Friday, May 4; and by the end of that day I knew it was going to be there until at least the following Tuesday as the intervening weekend was a long one due to the annual May Day holiday.
There was no likelihood of the town council, on whose public property the car is parked, removing it during that time. Fair enough, I suppose, as L’il Antz was also closed for these days, too.
However, it’s a bit of a worry as this car is in such a shocking state as to be an open invitation to be smashed and trashed, or even set alight.
But the days, and now a week, have passed – and that car is still resolutely parked in the middle of that bay, deteriorating in front of our eyes. When I first saw it, the front right tyre was flat; the next day the front left tyre was deflating, too.
When I walked home from my nightfill job at Woolworths just after midnight on Friday evening, the car was still parked on four wheels; two flat ones at the front, and two fully inflated at the rear.
By Saturday morning (May 12) the rear wheels had been “salvaged” by opportunists at some time in the early hours of the preceding night, and now the car is sitting there propped up on two wheel rims.
This is laughable but there’s “better” to come. I’m now informed that the reason this wreck of a car has been left alone is because no-one in a position of authority is able to do anything about it.
The police, having pulled the car over in the first place, are now powerless to remove the car because it is parked legally – it’s no longer breaking any rules.
Similarly the town council can’t touch it because the vehicle’s registration is still current and apparently that needs to expire first before the council has the legal authority to tow it away.
It had proven impossible to push the car out of the parking bay earlier because it’s steering is locked; now, of course, there is no prospect of doing so.
The car is parked in the bay effectively denying its use by clients of L’il Antz from dropping off or collecting their little children, which means that more people are obliged to use the carpark at the rear of the premises in the laneway, which significantly worsens traffic congestion.
The irony deepens when one learns that the parking bay on Sturt Terrace next to L’il Antz is, of course, public property – but ratepayers never paid for it. It was L’il Antz that was obliged to provide the finance for its construction as a condition for establishing the childcare centre at that location.
What ratepayers and taxpayers do pay for are the substantial salaries and perks for bureaucrats whose hands are bound up by so much red tape.
This is nothing short of risible. After more than a week, nothing has been done – or can be done – to remove a clearly abandoned unroadworthy car wreck parked in a public carpark bay only a half house-block away from one of the town’s busiest intersections.
If something as simple as removing an abandoned vehicle cannot be arranged by the powers-that-be of our fair town, can they be entrusted with the oversight and management of far more important (and invariably more expensive) public projects?
It so happens that during the week this farce was underway, Alice Springs hosted two performances of the Melbourne International Comedy Roadshow. They needn’t have bothered coming here, I reckon, when we’ve clearly got our own clowns putting on such absurd performances in real life.
And as for “common sense” – Ha! Now that’s a laugh!

Grog mayhem is exhausting Alice Springs. NEW LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

Power struggle on Town Council: a sign of things to come? (46 comments)
Female tourists sleeping in car alleged to have been sexually assaulted. (40 comments)
Grog stats may be useless as they do not include online and mail orders. (15 comments)
Kids enemy No 1 in law & order debate – or the main victims? (11 comments)
Grog, residential land, law & order: More power to Alice under Country Liberals, says Terry Mills. (11 comments)
Also, look for your favourite topics, writers and comment providers by entering their names into the search box under the masthead. With commentators use both names between inverted commas (e.g. “Fred Nurk”). Note to those correspondents who only provide a pseudonym or their first name: Google might ignore you, or rank you low. Our story archive, instantly accessible right around the world, contains some five million words and stretches back to 1997.

By KIERAN FINNANE

The Pintupi artist Yukultji Napangarti – one of the so called Lost Tribe of nine people whose first contact with the outside world was in 1984 – has won the Alice Prize with a hypnotic untitled work that “elevates paint on a surface to something sublime”.

So said judge of the prize, Nick Mitzevitch, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia.

“To me that’s what great painting is all about,” he said.

This is the 37th Alice Prize, one of Australia’s oldest contemporary art prizes, open to artists from around the country. Presented by the Alice Springs Art Foundation it opened tonight at Araluen and will be on display till June 10.

Mr Mitzevitch regarded Napangarti’s painting as “by far the most sophisticated and superior work in the exhibition”, and this despite the standard of the prize, and painting in particular, being “generally high”.

He said the work “sums up what landscape painting is really about in the 21st century”, even though it draws on thousands of years of Indigenous tradition. This is because it depicts landscape without the viewer being able to pinpoint where they are. It “denies traditional western notions of landscape” where it would be recognised as such by “common signifiers”, such as a horizon line.

“It’s constantly shifting, constantly intriguing, very rewarding at every glance,” he said, describing the artist as a “fabulous exponent” of optical effects which give the work a sense of infinity.

Yukultji Napangarti and her family occupy a special place in Australian history, being the last known nomadic people to ‘come in’ from the desert, making contact with other Pintupi people in the tiny settlement of Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia in 1984. Her three brothers have also gained recognition as artists.

Four works in the exhibition were highly commended, two of them by local artists – Margaret Loy Pula’s Anatye (Bush potato) and Nicky Schonkala’s Interrupted II. The others were Doomboony (Owl) by Shirley Purdie and a video work, Depart without return by Shoufay Derz.

Pictured, top: Yukultji Napangarti. Photo courtesy Papunya Tula Artists. Above: The winning work (detail).

Kieran Finnnane’s extended interview with Mr Mitzevitch will be published later this week.

In the global economic downturn all artists are doing it tough. How will the Aboriginal art industry ride it out? 

By KIERAN FINNANE

In any picture of the Aboriginal economy, especially on remote communities, the art industry would have to be seen as the shining light, for the way that it has engaged large numbers of people, bringing them purpose, cultural prestige, income and opportunity.  So why is it, in particular, the subject of a seven year research project by the CRC for Remote Economic Participation?

It’s not the only focus for the CRC of course – there are 12 research areas all up – but Aboriginal Art Economies is a flagship project with a $1.5m budget and will run for the entire seven years of the CRC’s life, with the final years devoted to “rolling-out” the research findings in practical ways.

Perth-based research leader Tim Acker has hands-on experience of the industry stretching back 15 years. He was for instance a manager of the famous Warlayirti Artists in Balgo, WA and more recently was one of the co-founders of the Canning Stock Route Project, whose acclaimed exhibition opened in the National Museum in 2010 and has just concluded its stint at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

Mr Acker acknowledges that the Aboriginal art industry is the “single most obvious and long-term success story to come out of remote Aboriginal Australia”, but he says it is still “characterised at pretty much every point by some form of fragility”.

“The way art is produced, the community circumstances, the art centres, the connections between artists and galleries, the GFC and the overall downturn in the art market in the last few years, all those things have put into sharp relief that there is nothing fixed about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art sector.”

Isn’t a certain amount of fragility inherent in creative activity no matter where it occurs?

Mr Acker agrees, there’s something about the creative process that is intangible, impossible to nail down. But he suggests that the inter-cultural space which Aboriginal art occupies, that accounts for some of its extraordinary success, is an additional fragility.

“The last thing you want to do is to reduce that, but some of the business models or the professional choices that artists make, the information the government is using, the kind of commercial forces at work, there is no doubt that those things are labouring under some old assumptions, or working with evidence that is being overtaken by reality. It’s that end of the deal that the art economies project is looking at.”

And some of fragility has come about because the industry it has been “too successful”, he says. For example, there are issues of over-supply and in this regard, the marketing of art on the internet has been a double-edged sword.

The double-edged sword of the internet

“Art production can pull the rug out from under itself. For example, there’s an enormous amount of ‘Aboriginal art’ online – you can buy anything from any famous artist at any time and that upends those well-established rules of the art market about exclusivity and scarcity.

“An artist can choose to paint for an art centre on Monday, a gallery on Tuesday, a taxi driver on Wednesday, the storekeeper on Thursday. That art can all arrive at the market in the same way, on the same day even. Then a customer or collector will see a high profile artist through one channel being suddenly sold for different prices through untested sources. That then becomes a real problem for the market. Collectors will get cautious and not spend and walk away from the sector as a worst case scenario.

“It’s one of the things that destablises the art market that has been such a success for Aboriginal people, but you also can’t deny the power and potential of the online world, particularly for remote Australia. So how do you forge a business model that manages to balance some of those tensions?  It’s somethign we’ll clearly be looking at over the next couple of years.”

In the first place though the team will be getting a handle on the scale and scope of the industry. To date there’s been no strong analysis of this. Estimates of the industry’s value “range wildly”, says Mr Acker, from $200m a year to $800m a year.

There have also been guesses about the value of merchandising and licensing activity based on Aboriginal art, with some guesses putting it at half of the overall industry’s value. If that’s even half true  “it represents enormous potential for artists, art centres or galleries, or new collaborations between designers and artists”, he says.

Solid research in this area could be very helpful to governments in framing policy. For example, at present Australia does not have a cultural imports policy. That enables all sorts of appropriated products to be imported from countries like Indonesia or China.

“If customs didn’t allow the import of dot-painted didgeridoos anymore then Aboriginal artists could fill that space.”

A tough way to make a living

The research on size and scope will also help test assumptions that an Aboriginal artist will be automatically successful or that painting is a great way to make lots of money. These assumptions exist as much in remote communities as they do in wider Australia: “Fine-grained information will give people a much clearer sense of how difficult it can be to be an artist, and particularly in the last few years, how tough it is as a way to make a living.

“But the research will also link financial questions with some of the other questions we’ll be asking about why artists produce – questions about well-being, mobility and so on. Art is an important contributor to people’s lives out bush, it’s not just about moving units and making money, it’s part of that hybrid economy that people live in, it’s about people being able to make a life in the community and country of their choosing, and that life includes painting as one of those choices, not the only choice.”

Some might argue that the market will sort the industry out, that it will settle at a more sustainable level after the current shakeout, and that artists will eventually get the message. Does government regulation necessarily have a role?

“The long term solutions are clearly in the market,” says Mr Acker. “Beautiful art is being produced and will continue to be produced. There will continue to be buyers and global and national interest in the market. The scale of that and the confidence and the amount of money in that system is anyone’s guess.

“Some of the mechanisms within the market are due for some change. The market is the only thing that can make them work in the long run, but that’s not to deny that there is a role for government, for instance in continuing to support remote practice, and a role for some sort of regulation. Whether the code of conduct in its current form is the right configuration is up for debate, as is the resale royalty scheme.”

That scheme, which the Australian Government has just funded for another two years, will be the subject of some research by the team. The feedback from the industry last year was that the scheme as well as changes to the way superannuation funds can be invested had contributed to the changed dynamics in the market. The project hopes to produce evidence, including financial modelling, on these issues that will be useful for both government and industry players.

Art centres vs private dealers

There is a lot of tension in the industry around the art centre model versus private sector models, especially where, for example, a dealer might choose to nurture some key artists who have previously been associated with art centres. The project will approach this issue with an open mind.

“Art centres are one form of agency which connect artists and audiences. They are obviously a key one and fundamental in many ways in this industry but it’s not an art centre project and several of our research questions are completely outside of art centres. There will be analysis of the way galleries and private dealers operate, but it won’t be approached as an ethical or judgmental analysis. They have a clear place in the art economy. Our interest is to understand the links between them and artists, to look at the way artists use and choose to move between the different models. Clearly artists, virtually since the very beginning in the early ’70s, have chosen to work in a number of different ways for whatever combination of personal, financial and strategic reasons.

“We also need to understand the scope and scale of the private activity. It’s one of the growth industries of Alice Springs and has been for years: how much work is produced in that space? It’s a question we hope to answer.

“If one of the results of our research is being able to provide artists with a little more information to improve or refine their choices or increase their bargaining position when they’re negotiating directly, then that could be a good outcome for everybody.”

There is some criticism of the art centre model, in its attempt to treat everyone equally, the suggestion being that that does not do justice to artists with the greater talent.

What makes for a successful art centre? 

The research will certainly be taking a look at the model as “a micro enterprise project”, which even the bigger art centres are, says Mr Acker: “We want to get a handle on the success and failure factors, why this community has a successful art centre and 100 kms down the road that community has never had one or what they have had has fallen over five times. We’re going to do that in three zones, one in the Western Desert, one in East Kimberly and a cluster in far north Queensland, to get some sense of the different forces at work, different funding, different maturity in the market and so on.”

There’ll be modelling of the scope and scale but also a look at examples of artists with successful careers, their relationship with galleries, how that works financially, artistically and professionally.

Prominent Melbourne-based gallerist Beverly Knight, for example, has had quite a few artists who have had long-term relationships with her, some who work for art centres, some not.

“Sally Gabori would a fantastic case study of an artist whose entire career has been closely linked with one gallery – Knight’s Alcaston Gallery – and she has been enormously successful.

“Some art centres choose not to have that sort of superstar thing going on, they are much more of a social enterprise, see their role as much more diffuse in the community and not just about nurturing individual careers. Those choices that art centres and artists are making are sometimes counter to the way the art market works, but they are not made lightly and I’m sure understanding them and their implications is important information for people to have.”

In Mr Acker’s experience has the social enterprise model limited what a really good artist could achieve, or do really good artists manage to succeed nevertheless?

“I think the latter. One of the challenges in this space is that for every example on the left someone could pull up an example contradicting that on the right. There is such enormous variability. Looking back at 10 or 15 years of working in this industry I can say there is nothing in the art centre model, as a non-profit community cooperative, that inhibits an artist from having a successful individual career, assuming good management, good support, good relationships. There are lots of things that have to happen for any artist to have a career and that is true or even more true for a remote Aboriginal person.

“On the whole the community cooperative has far more strengths than it does weaknesses. It’s not perfect but it’s being refined and it’s allowing extraordinary art to be produced from a dazzling array of artists.”

One area of the cooperative model that needs strengthening is human resources – another domain where the project wants to make a contribution.

Getting and keeping good managers 

“In remote communities generally, it’s really difficult to attract and retain good people. That hasn’t changed in the time I’ve been involved in this sector yet recruitment still follows a very formulaic and un-changed model. We’re wanting to look at what it is that makes a good art centre manager, what are the qualities and characteristics that support a good human resource situation in an art centre and I’m hoping that will open up better systems of orientation, training, better support of good quality managers. That  will obviously have a huge impact on the life and success of an art centre.”

All CRCs have an emphasis on user benefits. The art economies project has the next two years to focus on research and then the emphasis will be on roll-out, with some overlaps. In the human resources area, for example, the team could work with peak bodies or possibly a recruiting company, or both, to provide greater recruitment resources for art centre managers and boards.

“Part of our mandate is to create the resources or present the business models or offer some training, present the findings in ways that are useful to people. So we’re not going to get to 2016 and say, ‘Here’s the report, see you later’.”

The way some of the business models link artists, art centres and galleries is up for examination.

“Because artists can be linked to audiences in a much more direct way if they choose, some of the business arrangements are difficult for them: two commission arrangements, for example, one between the art centre and the artist, the other between the art centre and the gallery. For some artists that is probably not the best option. We’re looking at a business model that tries to find some way to equalise that a bit so that artists can make a range of choices without disadvantaging themselves, their art centre or their career.”

There is also a research question looking at how Aboriginal art is marketed.

“We’ll be examining the way art audiences behave, at the way consumption and taste are understood. This could lead to improvements and change to the way Aboriginal art is marketed, both online and otherwise, and to different ways for state support to occur. There’s been some preliminary work done in the west, looking at new art centres in particular and one that’s slightly more established. There’s a growing amount of evidence that they carry out a lot of the work that would normally fall to other government departments like health and justice, yet they continue to attract only a very small amount of art-based funding.

“Some art centres succeed in sometimes attracting funding from other sources but overall FaHCSIA are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on programs that have been arguably far less successful than art centres, yet art centres are producing outcomes that are clearly in that space.”

‘Stories don’t sell art’

Beverly Knight has told the Alice Springs News Online that the old emphasis on “story and the artist’s Aboriginality and cultural identity” in the marketing of Aboriginal art is outmoded.

“That is not what it is about at all for the contemporary consumer. Stories don’t sell art, the aesthetics sell art. Where story is important is in the motivation and inspiration for the artist. People may have that deep cultural knowledge but their work is not selling. People who were collecting for that reason are no longer collecting, trust me, they’re not. The contemporary collector is looking at the aesthetics. We exhibit in Korea for instance. Being Aboriginal means nothing over there. What they want to know is ,’Is it fresh?’. This is what remote artists have over other people. They can actually come up with something totally different.”

Responding to this from his personal experience, Mr Acker refers to the many layers within the Aboriginal art sector, from tourist art to top level fine art that goes to auction houses: “There are crossovers and blurry lines between each, yet each has their own dynamic. I think what Beverly is talking about is true at certain levels of the market, yet only certain numbers of artists are working at that level.

“There is a growing number of possibilities in the more social enterprise type art centres, like Tangentyere, Tjanpi, Martumili to name a few. They produce interesting, valid pieces of art that will probaly never make it to the Sotheby’s auction but what their art is driven by is a very strong cultural engagement and what people are buying it for is stories. Margaret Boko’s paintings are an example. They are dealing with some pretty confronting issues in Alice Springs and have an audience that is interested in what she is talking about. They have a content that drives part of the market.

“I don’t think there’s a single way to categorise the industry and say people aren’t interested in content anymore. People overseas might not be interested in that work but there will always be people in Australia who are.”

Mr Acker mentions as another example the History Paintings by Warakurna Artists that were donated by art collectors Wayne and Vicki McGeoch to the National Museum. It’s interesting in this context to quote the museum’s Dr Mike Pickering about them: “The experience of the National Museum of Australia has shown that this is the sort of exhibition the public wants. Works characterised by artists’ own narratives. The donors have recognised the importance of the artists’ voices in communicating the meaning of their art. They have seen beyond the surface to the rich stories of culture, history and biography that the works encapsulate. In this they are to be congratulated for their openness and foresight.”

Says Mr Acker: “The history paintings have taken those artists in a different direction, even if it’s only for a little while, but that art centre still has artists who are very successful in the fine art market. The two don’t cancel each other out, they are different layers within the market.”

In the context of looking at art centres as micro enterprises, the project will also try to get a handle on a new layer of interest that many are encouraging, and that is work in multi-media by young Aboriginal people, particularly young males.

“We also have a research question which is about the community factors, the personal factors that are conducive to an artist producing work. Interviewing some of those young guys about why they’re producing videos will overlap with the micro enterprise project and might lead to some insight into what are the risks and the benefits of supporting non-traditional forms. It’s a very open-ended new question.

“There’s a million things people want to know and there’s only a few of us and a finite amount of time. We won’t be able to answer all the questions but I hope we answer well the ones we do and so help reduce the number of uncertainties in the sector.”

Photos, from top:

•Nancy Nyanyarna Jackson working on her painting in the Warakurna Artists studio. Photo by Rhett Hammerton

• Tim Acker speaking at the recent Same But Different forum in Alice Springs, about innovation in desert arts. Either side of him are Jo Foster from Tjanpi Desert Weavers (left) and Carly Davenport, co-founder of the Canning Stock Route Project. A painting by Margaret Boko is in the background.  Photo by Lisa Stefanoff, co-convener of the forum and a researcher with the Aboriginal Art Economies project.

• Among those attending the forum were (centre front) artist Marlene Rubuntja from Yarrenyty Arltere Art Centre in Alice Springs, and manager of the centre,  Sophie Wallace. Photo by Lisa Stefanoff.

• Desert Mob 2010, with paintings by Tjala Artists in the foreground. Photo from our archive.

• Desert Mob 2011, with soft sculptures by Yarrenyty Arltere artists in the foreground. Photo from our archive.

• Margaret Boko at work at Tangentyere Artists studio. Photo from our archive.

• Tjanpi weavers do inma (song and dance) at Tandanya in Adelaide.  Photo courtesy Tjanpi Desert Weavers.

• A story painting by Margaret Boko (detail), commissioned last year for the Darwin Festival. Photo from our archive.

• Joel Ken speaks at the Same But Different forum about IndigiTube, a site hosting Indigenous videos. It gets between 800 and 1200 views a week. In its top 20 are music clips alongside video records of traditional inma. Photo by Lisa Stefanoff.

By ERWIN CHLANDA

The volatile debate on alcohol reform turns largely on the volume of consumption and how various measures affect it.
Trouble is, the stats are seen to present an incomplete picture as they do not capture the apparently growing online and mail-order purchases that come to the consumer direct from interstate.
Said Deputy Mayor Brendan Heenan during the recent local government election campaign: “There are statistics that less alcohol is being sold now. I don’t believe them. Go to the post office and watch how much alcohol comes in, pallets and pallets of mail orders from south now, tonnes of the stuff, every day.”

The Alice Springs News Online requested information from the NT Justice Department at about noon yesterday. It has not yet been provided. When it comes to hand we will update this report.
Blair McFarland, manager of CAYLUS (Central Australian Youth Link Up Service) which campaigns strongly on substance abuse issues , says so far as he knows, figures about alcohol obtained from interstate by mail order and online are not included in the NT consumption statistics, which – again, so far as he knows – represent wholesale trade in the NT.
Mr McFarland says, relying on figures interstate, the online and mail order proportion is around one percent of the total.
Prominent alcohol activist and medical doctor, John Boffa says: “The short answer is that only some of the sales are included when the wine company or other company is registered in the NT.
“[The government does] not have a way of monitoring all of the internet sales.”
This trade is partly a result of people having a gutful of jumping through hoops to buy their booze and the increasingly unpleasant atmosphere in bottle shops.
The post office will not disclose quantities it handles, which may significantly skew the figures: it is argued a drop in consumption may well not be because the latest initiatives are working but because more people have gone online.
Australia Post  – functionally a grog outlet in this context – is basically refusing to comment although it does keeps tabs on its business with alcohol because it has a requirement to ensure no deliveries to minors are made.
This is the answer the Alice Springs News Online received from a PR person after weeks of enquiries:-
“Wine delivery is an integral part of the service Australia Post provides to our customers.
“Our alcohol delivery procedures include requesting proof of age identification as required to ensure we provide a safe and professional delivery service and meet our legal and community obligations in preventing the delivery of alcohol product to minors.
And: “In terms of requesting proof of age, when delivering a parcel marked as containing alcohol, delivery staff request proof of age if the person at the address looks to be less than 25 years of age.
“If they can’t provide suitable ID the parcel will be taken back to the nearest post office for later collection by someone who can present appropriate ID.
“This requirement is not something that directly correlates to how much alcohol is delivered.”
That seems most improbable: they know what’s in the parcels or else they wouldn’t demand proof of age.
And: “Australia Post is committed to working collaboratively with local, state and federal authorities on the distribution of alcohol to restricted communities and I suggest you would be better placed to contact them in this instance.”
In what way do they collaborate?
“I’m really sorry I can’t assist further but we keep track of parcel volumes (which are commercial in confidence), not what’s inside the parcels.”
Alice Springs is a restricted community (see the blue signs at the entrances to town and the 2km law, for example), but the authorities are not told how much grog the post office handles.

PHOTO: The yard of the Alice Springs post office which, some claim, transports large quantities of alcohol not accounted for in NT consumption statistics.

UPDATE May 10, 12:40pm: The NT Department of Justice has now provided a partial response to our questions.

They were: Does the department have figures of alcohol obtained via mail order or online, and delivered via Post Australia?
If you do please supply them to me.
Are mail order or online purchases of alcohol from interstate and delivered to the buyer direct captured in the NTG stats made public?
Answer: DoJ is aware of small amounts of alcohol being purchased over the Internet.  These amounts are insignificant in comparison to the 2.73 million litres of pure alcohol sold in 2010.

Online retailers can use the Banned Drinkers Register online and since its launch on 26 March, three interstate licensees have adopted the system with the first sale recorded on 8 May 2012.

Follow-up questions to the department: That clearly means that the government does not know the quantities and they are not reflected in the NT alcohol statistics; is that so? How many mail order and online retailers from interstate are supplying the NT?

UPDATE May 10, 4:20pm:

The department replies: Whilst we don’t know specific quantities, from discussions with cartage agents, especially in Alice Springs, quality bottled wine is being purchased in very low quantities in comparison to what is sold in the Territory.
The majority of online liquor sellers don’t sell into the NT.  Coles and Woolworths despatch their online liquor sale products from the NT and so already use the BDR. In developing the BDR online, we wrote to 10 organisations that offer online liquor sales into the Territory – including Coles and Woolworths, letting them know that the BDR was available online.