Working on what makes Mparntwe totemic

By MIKE GILLAM

In Alice Springs we have a remarkable opportunity to enhance the cultural landscape that predates the omnipresent European streetscapes and celebrate the Mparntwe world view which makes this place so different, manifested by the town's totemic caterpillars (above).

As a civic ambition this should include elevated management of sacred sites and more thoughtful investments in public art. Creating a more interesting and respectful society for locals will invariably attract more tourists. Too often we are defined by the sliding symptoms and acceptance of neglect.

Death by a thousand cuts can be softened by a thousand expressions of a community that cares about its citizens, history and legacy. For inspiration we need look no further than the high points of our history, especially the remarkable friendship between Arrernte leaders and post master Frank Gillen, co-author of The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899).

I know it’s a little unfair to compare a tourist resort and workers village gazetted town, a place of high environmental and aesthetic standards, with the hurly burly of Alice Springs. Still, we could glean something about self-respect, community wellbeing and visitor appeal.

MULTIPLE VEHICLE tracks in Charles Creek on the Northside show scant respect for the town's landscape.

Surely we’d like to acknowledge the special place our town occupies in the hearts of locals and we want our friends to love it too? Moreover at a time of heightened climate change anxiety around the country we might want to broaden our civic interventions and interpretations of crime to address the CBD heat island.

Retaining locals should be a priority and attracting new people to settle here a goal made much more difficult if we don’t also address heat mitigation. By investing in the wellbeing of locals, our town will indirectly prove attractive to tourists.

Many factors can shift the barometer in favour of civil society, I believe nature calming is one. The reverse is true. The sight of old growth trees left to burn in the river validates anarchy, as does the random use of fireworks, blatant traffic violations, street racing and similar.

I’m absolutely convinced that tolerating and enabling such behaviour is a factor driving local versions of grand theft auto. A traffic policing surge is long overdue.

Of course we’d like to take greater pride in the caring and unique lifestyle we project to the world. I’d suggest a greater emphasis on trees for shade, form and resilience than set and forget monolithic metal structures in nice poppy colours.

Other destinations will always outspend us on grand architectural statements, so we’ll never be an internationally recognised and admired desert city if we continue following that civic logic.

DRIVERS of off-road bikes and cars are attracted to the Ilparpa claypans – to the detriment of this place rich in creatures and plants.

Better to leverage the special qualities of our town setting and features of the landscape. Clearly trees are a great option for reducing heat island effects, contributing to pedestrian comfort and liveability, jobs in horticulture and habitat for urban birds.

Softer landscaping treatments utilising stand out desert plants (eg. on the roundabout north of the Gap) might also be a superior option for some of the sites now attracting metal sculptures.

No different to providing nectar for honeyeaters in our gardens, sculptures need to be distributed thoughtfully, especially in public places. Like nectar, sculptures shouldn’t become a default setting for every empty plot, they are surely the accent, a matter of quality over quantity.

We should strive to enhance the cultural landscape that predates the omnipresent European streetscapes and celebrate the Mparntwe world view which makes this place so incredible.

How many generations did it take for Arrernte people to elevate the smallest denizens of this place, its vibrant caterpillars and green beetles to the highest order of sacred totems?

The Yeperenye sculpture situated at Araluen, sponsored by Grand Circle Corporation, was informed by a process of site analysis, intensive cultural engagement and community participation back in 2001.

Unfortunately the invertebrates featured in the Gregory Terrace Bath Street roundabout, a desirable choice of subject, have been poorly placed and obscured by combined traffic signage as well as protection from random vehicle strike.

Clearly the subject needed a more realistic budget or a better, pedestrian friendly site. On the nearby Yeperenye carpark wall, the moth caterpillar painted mural is much more successful as public art.

While three prominent caterpillar beings are a major focus, local story-telling is not confined to these exquisite invertebrates. Wild dog and euro (kangaroo) ancestors are undoubtedly more relatable in mainstream society as iconic wildlife so there’s plenty of design scope within the bounds of cultural authenticity.

The somewhat disassociated eagle with snake prey on the roundabout to the immediate east, honours iconic and heroic themes that have dominated newcomer appreciation of Australian wildlife for centuries, think dingo, kangaroo, emu, perentie or the crocodile obsession to our north.

Well crafted, the eagle pole totem also highlights our preoccupation with a set and forget CBD. If this is just the beginning of our civic dalliance with statues, are we in danger of creating a thematically chaotic and cluttered town centre, exemplified by over stated military signage on the road leading to the summit of Anzac Hill? Is a cultural contest playing out on this prominent hill now so overburdened with messaging?

"Telling the stories of war: we could do so much better" was the headline on an ALICE SPRINGS NEWS comment piece by KIERAN FINNANE in January 2017.

Might the wedge-tailed eagle sit better on the giant Undoolya CDU roundabout, a more appropriate acknowledgment of its connection to Mt Undoolya in the east where the eagle story resonates strongly in Arrernte story-telling.

Free from the competitive lines of adjacent buildings, placing the eagle there is more likely to create an admired landmark.

With high recognition by mainstream society, it’s not surprising perhaps that the eagle was chosen over the more culturally significant and equally amazing brown falcon (irrkerlantye). Should we prioritise totemic heroes of the Mparntwe estate first and foremost?

Points of a cultural compass might reserve the giant Larapinta-Lovegrove roundabout for a future wild dog ancestor, Alhekulyele, where the link with Mt Gillen is striking and immediate.

Could we gainfully incorporate some sculptures with landscaping and tree canopies and even free them from vehicular traffic altogether, to enhance pedestrian spaces? This challenge begins with location-location-location, respect-respect-respect and always seeking advice from custodians.

As a guiding principle, authenticity and other thoughtful design filters will help to prevent our town’s collection of sculptures from becoming a third rate carbon copy of something we’ve already seen on you-tube.

In my opinion the whimsical sculpture by J9 Stanton at the landfill Discovery Centre is a standout example of an artist responding to and adding tremendous value to place.

OLD GROWTH red gum in the Todd River.

In the aftermath of the McDouall Stuart statue "gift" controversy, Councillor Michael Liddle of the previous ASTC indicated an arguably better subject.

Irrapmwe or Unchalka known to colonists as King Charley, was the legendary Arrernte leader and interlocuter who schooled Telegraph officer Frank Gillen in matters of law and country. It’s a wonderful suggestion that might also highlight the friendship that existed between two peacemakers without peer in the history of our town.

Finally, the ASTC has called for nominations to a new public art advisory committee and this expertise should enhance our ability to deliver quality outcomes in the public domain.

Notwithstanding the statue’s quality of construction I do believe such a committee of review, given the chance, would have rejected the heroic Stuart statue. Surely they would have realised more honest and engaging portrayals of Stuart went begging.

Unfortunately these public art skills were circumvented, regarded as unnecessary by council officers and certain elected members of the day, because the statue was a gift. Herein lies a lesson for the new ASTC and future public art committees. Beware of gifts devoid of critical thinking and public interest process.

While a committee will not necessarily contain all the requisite cultural knowledge, it’s reasonable to expect they’ll have the confidence and community networks to seek out those who do.

I’m hopeful its members will be motivated to encourage collaboration between the holders of knowledge (Mparntwe custodians) and the creators of future artworks.

An advisory committee approach is not foolproof but its absence from council’s decision making has left some unfortunate civic scars. I believe this new committee improves the odds of Alice Springs avoiding embarrassing cultural gaffes or being shaped by bureaucrats pursuing vanity projects and favouring a particular artist, style or industry sponsor in the process.

It’s just one example of the Alice Springs Town Council leveraging deep local knowledge to provide better advice on the development of our culturally rich town, a largely hidden competitive edge we should illuminate and magnify with care.

Now we must await news of appointments and see if the expertise of this new advisory committee is respected by power brokers within Council.

In Alice Springs we must work harder on our stewardship of nature’s sculptural giants in the Todd and Charles Rivers. Ideally we’d remove the buffel and couch grass but perhaps not, given that motorbikes are tearing through the river corridors every single day.

Increased erosion, the loss of sand and soil, would likely threaten the trees we need to protect. However we could prioritise removal of the buffel encircling the trees and create transverse buffel free check lines to retard fire movement and intensity during a wildfire event.

TODD RIVER fire in 2015.

Not perfect, however this would be more sustainable and cheaper than slashing the entire river corridors, re-invigorating buffel grass and watching it set new seed.

Most of the offroad damage done is caused by a few regulars and of course it’s possible the motor sports community doesn’t realise how much damage that is.

The mountain bike brigade are little better. They have their entitled members also, those who carve tracks across registered sacred sites and don’t see the resulting erosion gullies as their problem. “I just want to have fun” (preferably right outside my backdoor) is the popular rejoinder.

With limited resources Landcare Alice Springs have been working for decades to better protect the sculptural giants, the grand story trees, from buffel fuelled fires and the ASTC has followed suit. So we’ve made a good start.

Respect doesn’t happen overnight, we must exercise patience and seek to encourage good behaviours. Of note, the sponsors of the Finke Desert Race made an unsolicited donation to Alice Springs Landcare this year. Perhaps the responsibility gap between those who care and appreciate local grandeur and beauty in very different ways is not so far apart.

For the record, banning the right to climb and stand on top of the paramount view has not caused a terrible erosion of visitor numbers to Yulara.

Perhaps Uluru is attracting a different clientele or more likely the expectations of visitors and locals are evolving. The old model of initiation at Ayers Rock has finally moved beyond conquest, from tourists turned climbers for a few hours and earning the right to wear a T-Shirt.

Now the great majority see the temple of Uluru more clearly and the infinite light change of a desert wilderness so utterly different from their homeland. The LED light and drone spectacle, superfluous in my view, is available for anyone who needs a sugar hit.

At a distance of 10 km Uluru provides the unparalleled drama with Yulara’s landscaping an immersive experience grounding visitors with its touch and human scale.

In contrast Alice Springs has a dramatic natural setting that sets us truly apart, a fact under-appreciated by some of us exposed to this wonder every day.

Does this free magnificence camouflage Government neglect and excuse official complacency? In the drama and beauty stakes we have a serious head start. Imagine if we invested the kind of money we blow, on one off events, in better design and management of our urban landscapes.

Landscape architect Peter Hay showed us the possibilities in his thoughtful designs and robust plantings, from carparks that harvest rainfall to group plantings of stately river red gums and ghost gums that provide drama and a shady interface with the tarmac surfaces at the Alice Springs airport opened in 1991.

The Alice Springs Desert Park followed in 1997, once again highlighting the possibilities of landscape architecture and elevated management.

I live in hope these examples of working with country might infiltrate more emphatically into the public domain of our town, strengthening regional and cultural identity while leveraging precious public funds for the greatest civic benefit.

ALL PHOTOS except the Anzac Hill signs © MIKE GILLAM.