Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to make another contribution about the good work that the Labor government is doing in regional Australia, and in particular regional South Australia. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to travel to the APY Lands. For those who do not know, 'APY Lands' is short for Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands. The APY Lands are in the far north of South Australia and make up 102,000 square kilometres, or 10.4 per cent of South Australia, and 84.5 per cent of the population are Indigenous Australians.

I was privileged to go there on behalf of Minister Garrett and open the APY Trade Training Centre, in Umuwa, and also to visit the art centres that had received some funding out of the Regional Development Australia Fund. Having this opportunity to travel and visit the APY Lands is a real honour, and it is not one that all Australians are able to have. Having visited the place and having seen the beauty of the place, I question why we do not have more Australians visiting this incredibly beautiful part of South Australia. Perhaps that is a question for the Indigenous councils and communities. Having sought and been granted a permit, I was officially welcomed into the APY Lands. I think that it is such a beautiful place and has so much to offer that perhaps easier access for the ordinary Australian traveller and tourist would be a good thing.

We visited Indulkana; Mimili; Fregon; Umuwa, where we opened the trade training centre; Ernabella, which is probably a reasonably well known settlement; Amata; Murputja; and Kalka. It involved quite a degree of what I refer to as old-fashioned bush travelling on dirt roads with a bit of boggy country, sand and wash-outs. It is actually very enjoyable if you are a four-wheel-drive enthusiast.

I have often stood here and talked about the merits of trade training centres. As I said at Umuwa, there is no difference there from what is happening all around Australia. This Labor government is putting in trade training centres. There is no special deal there. We have a trade training centre in Umuwa which is worth $7.3 million. The lead school is Ernabella Anangu School. The other schools in the cluster are Amata Anangu School, Indulkana Anangu School,Fregon Anangu School, Kenmore Park Anangu School, Mimili Anangu School, Murputja Anangu School—and I had to apologise at the opening that I am not sure that I get the language right—Pipalyatjara Anangu School andWatarru Anangu School. The clusters of schools are there. The trade training centre is there.

It is a great facility. I have to pay tribute to the contractor. I have seen a lot of construction in my day. It is fantastic. It is state of the art. Kids are going through there, excited to be learning construction, automotive work, agriculture, baking and hospitality. It is a really exciting venture. I followed opening the facility by speaking with an Indigenous leader who said: 'Proper jobs for our people. Proper jobs, that's what we want. Proper jobs.' It was exciting. There we were. The APY Lands, if you have any knowledge of South Australia, are normally the subject of less than good publicity, but there we have a state-of-the-art facility, we have positive Indigenous leaders talking about proper jobs for their kids, and we have a cluster of schools that are going to feed into that trade training centre and kids who want to work with their hands and work with their minds and get on in life.

It is a long way away. It is 1,200 kays from Adelaide before you turn off to do another 250 kays to Ernabella or Umuwa, so it is a long way from the heart of civilisation, if you like, in South Australia. As I say, it gets an inordinate amount of bad publicity, but I saw a very positive event there. I saw Indigenous leaders and committed workers combining to provide an opportunity for kids in Indigenous villages and communities to get on. While we were there we had an opportunity to visit the arts centres. I do not have a lot to do with the arts, but I was astounded at the progress that these people have made with the success of their arts centres. A minimum of subsidy to put a couple of artists in each of these centres has meant that they are generating income from the real world into Indigenous communities. If you go to oric.gov.au you will be able to see what these are centres are making. Their audit reports are there. So a minimal subsidy from Simon Crean's portfolio is generating significant earning capacity in these Indigenous communities. It really goes back to feeding, clothing, educating and sustaining these Indigenous people. They are very proud of it.

I would like to share a few stories with you from Tjala Arts. Hector Burton said:

Anangu really love to run their own company. Anangu are really proud of this company they own. We need to do this work for the young people to see, they will watch us and learn from us and then it will be their turn to run their own show, to run their own company on their country.

Iluwanti Ken said:

We want to keep teaching our young ones so they can teach the generation which follows them. This is very good work for all aboriginal people living in Central Australia. We are giving our young people every opportunity we can through this company, we are encouraging them and they are coming. The leaders are the Elders, first they teach. It's like filling in the first page of the book so the young person can go ahead and write the rest of the story.

Nvurpaya Kaika said:

When outsiders come, they will see Anangu, the way we have always been, and the way we are today—strong—holding onto our culture. We put our stories on the canvas and leave it for the children to grow up and learn about the country and culture that surrounds them. When people see Tjala Arts I think they are shocked at what we have created here. We teach our children everywhere in the Art Centre and everywhere else, we show them the story sites. Our stories are really big and powerful, they are everything to Anangu. We don't need pen and paper, we carry our stories in our hearts, in our blood, and the country carries them too.

Sadie Singer, a senior elder and landowner of the APY Lands, said:

I worked as a member of the Indulkana Community Council for seven years. I then worked as a Police Aid. Now, I live on my homeland, 10kms outside of Indulkana and today I am semi-retired. I now teach my grandchildren how to make paintings and how to do Inma (dancing) and make artefacts. I tell them how to continue stories about special bush-tuckers, honey ant and jukurrpa (dreamings). I look after my boys and grandchildren. I teach them how to follow the fresh tracks to get emu, perente, and kangaroos. They have to hear about their great, great grandmother and know their culture to keep it strong.

The stories go on and on. The reality is that, with minimal funding in arts, we have something that is working and attracting a lot of money back into Indigenous communities, which is then providing the food and sustenance that people need.

I could speak for a lot longer than I have tonight. I just want to end by thanking people who gave me the opportunity to participate in this trip. I thank Elizabeth Tregenza, Tracy Tinkler, Keith Darwin and Mark Connelly for their briefings on the APY Lands. I would also like to thank Marika Zellmer, Bob Smith and Jeremy Gaynor for their hospitality throughout the trip.