Exciting news from Mparntwe/Alice Springs. The first Indignous appointment to the leadership of the troubled National Aboriginal Art Gallery team has been announced, with applications open until 6th October. S/He will presumably be working to Tracy Puklowski, who was appointed in April last year – not exactly speedy progress.
Earlier this year, I wrote: “There was also a design competition announced for a museum that at that stage had no site. Well, it seems that the Alice Springs Town Council has finally buckled on its resistance to handing over Anzac Oval, which has always been the NT Government’s determinedly chosen site – despite continuing opposition by the proper Traditional Owners for that part of the town. And the Darwin Government has reportedly also realised that it needed to make some concession too. An Aboriginal co-Director will join Puklowski at the helm”. Is this the co-Director job, I wonder?
There has also been an ALP offer since winning the Federal election to put $80 million “towards a new First Nations museum in Alice Springs”. I asume that’s the NAAG, always a gallery of art rather than a cultural museum – though that was once promised too by the ALP government in Darwin.
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