Ali Curung

Ali Curung[4] (Kaytetye: Alekarenge; formerly Warrabri) is an Indigenous Australian community in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory. The community is located 170 km (106 mi) south of Tennant Creek, and 378 km (235 mi) north of Alice Springs. At the 2021 census, the community had a population of 394.[3]

Ali Curung
Northern Territory
Ali Curung is located in Northern Territory
Ali Curung
Ali Curung
Coordinates21°00′12″S 134°24′25″E[1][2]
Population394 (2021 census)[3]
Postcode(s)0872
Elevation375 m (1,230 ft)
Location170 km (106 mi) from Tennant Creek
LGA(s)Barkly Region
Territory electorate(s)Barkly
Federal division(s)Lingiari
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall
32.3 °C
90 °F		 16.6 °C
62 °F		 386.6 mm
15.2 in

History

The community was established as an Aboriginal reserve under the Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910 in 1956[5]: 2  [6]: 65  [7] by the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration[8]: 72  when the water supply at the Phillip Creek settlement north of Tennant Creek was exhausted.[5]: 1  Two bores were drilled during 1954, buildings were constructed during 1955, and the residents of Phillip Creek were transported to Warrabri in mid 1956.[5]: 2  The settlement was officially opened on 23 September 1958.[5]: 3  It was managed by a superintendent and other non-Indigenous staff.[5]: 4  Accommodation for the white staff consisted of Riley Newsum buildings, Bellevue pre-cut houses and Nissen huts.[5]: 6  Administrative functions were housed in Nissen and Romney huts.[5]: 7  Aboriginal residents initially built shacks from corrugated iron and bush timber.[5]: 11  By 1958, some brick houses and some aluminium houses had been constructed.[5]: 11  The settlement also had an electricity generator,[5]: 5  airstrip,[5]: 8  garage,[5]: 14  and general and agricultural stores; vegetable garden and yards for pigs, goats and poultry;[5]: 9–10  a school,[5]: 6, 12  an infirmary,[5]: 6, 13  a recreation hut,[5]: 13–14  and a dining room where meals were provided.[5]: 12 

Name

The settlement was originally named Warrabri, formed from the names of the two main groups of Aboriginal people who were moved there: Warumungu (then spelt Warramunga) and Warlpiri (then spelt Wailbri).[5]: 1  [7][8]: 72  [9] After the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 was passed, and Aboriginal reserves became Aboriginal land,[8]: 8  the name was changed to Ali Curung, based on the name of sites within 6 km north of the community related to the Dog (or Dingo) Dreaming, called Alekarenge ("dog/dingo-associated")[8]: 8, 72  [9][10] in the language of the traditional owners of the area, the Kaytetye people[5]: 1  [8]: 73  [10][11] and in Alyawarr.[9]

Geography
Unsealed road in red sand country near Ali Curung

The climate of Ali Curung is arid,[12]: 21  and the country around Ali Curung is dry for most of the year, with no surface water in creeks or waterholes.[10] Water was traditionally obtained by digging at soakages.[10] The landscape is characterised by red sand plains and low ridges,[12]: 33–40  with extensive areas of open spinifex grassland.[8]: 22  [12]: 69  There are areas of scattered bloodwood (Corymbia opaca) and dogwood (Acacia sericophylla) trees,[12]: 70  and shrublands and low woodlands of red-bud mallee shrub (Eucalyptus pachyphylla),[12]: 70  mulga (Acacia aneura) and witchetty bush (Acacia kempeana),[12]: 71  with some desert white gums (Corymbia aparrerinja), smooth-barked coolibah (Eucalyptus victrix) and Hakea chordophylla north of Ali Curung.[12]: 71 

Population and languages

By 1958, two years after its establishment, the maximum number of Aboriginal residents was 367 (in January–February), while the minimum number was 258 (in July).[5]: 3  There were thirteen non-Indigenous staff employed there.[5]: 4  The population in 1965 was 590;: 67  by around 1980, it had increased to about 790-830.[6][8]: 7  Of those, about 70-80 (as of 1976-1977) were non-Indigenous.[8]: 7  The Aboriginal population in the late 1970s comprised 35% Warlpiri, 20% Warumungu and Warlmanpa, 30-35% Alyawarra and 10-15% Kaytetye.[8]: 7  [13]: 7  Warlpiri and Warumungu people tend to live in the west side of the community, and Alyawarra and Kaytetye to the east, orientating themselves in relation to their traditional country.[13]

At the 2021 census, the community had a population of 394,[3] of whom 88.1% were Indigenous Australians 23.1% of people reported speaking only English at home;[3] 36.0% reported speaking Warlpiri at home, 26.6% spoke Alyawarr, 2.0% spoke Kaytetye, and 0.6% spoke Warumungu at home. [3]

Governance

When first established, the settlement was managed by a superintendent,[5]: 4  and the Aboriginal residents were wards of the Chief Protector of Aborigines under the Aboriginals Ordinance 1918.[5]: 11–15  The Aboriginal Land Rights Commission report of 1974 recommended that land in Aboriginal reserves pass to Aboriginal ownership, which occurred with the enactment of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act in January 1977.[14] Title to the Warrabri reserve, along with other NT Aboriginal reserves, was handed to Aboriginal land trusts by the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ian Viner, at Amoonguna on 4 September 1978.[15] A council had existed at Warrabri prior to 1977, with Aboriginal membership, largely from the west side groups in the community.[8]: 88  From 1977, following a directive of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, elections were held for a council which was more representative of local groups.[8]: 88–89  The Ali Curung Community Government Council[16] continued to operate until the 2008 reform of local government areas by the Northern Territory Government,[17]: 5  when Ali Curung became part of the Alyawarr ward of the Barkly Shire[18][19][20] (from 2014, the Barkly Regional Council).[21]

In 2007, Ali Curung became a "prescribed community" under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response;[22][23]: 62  among other impacts, the Australian federal government compulsorily acquired a five-year lease over Ali Curung,[22] a Government Business Manager was installed,[18][23]: 71  [24] and residents receiving social security payments were placed on an income management system under which fifty per cent of their payments were "quarantined", and could only be spent on "priority needs".[23]: 58  [24]

Economy

During the period when it was managed by the Welfare Branch, some Aboriginal people living at Warrabri, as it was then, were employed outside the settlement in the pastoral and droving industries. Others worked in the routine jobs in the settlement.[5]: 8–9 

At the time of the 2021 census, in a population of 394, 123 people reported being in the paid work force, of whom 35.0% were unemployed, 31.6% worked part-time, and 38.5% were employed full-time.[3]

Education

The Warrabri School opened on 9 May 1956.[5]: 12  A manual training centre for senior school students and young people over school age was established in 1959, providing training in domestic science for girls and woodwork, leatherwork and blacksmithing for boys.[5]: 14 

As of 2019, Alekarenge School provides education from preschool to middle school.[25]

Recreation and culture

The Ali Curung football team, the Kangaroos, have been members of the Barkly Australian Football League since its founding in 1991.[26]

Culture festivals have been held in Ali Curung at various times, including the Pulapa Wirri ("big dance") in 1975[27] and 1976.[28] The Ali Curung Dance Festival has been held annually during NAIDOC Week celebrations since at least 2010.[29][30][31]

Bands which have originated in or have members from Ali Curung include the Ali-Curung Sundowners, led by Gus Williams;[32] the Warrabri Blue Grass Group;[32] the Ali-Curung Spinifex Band,[33] and Band Nomadic.[34][35]

An arts centre, the Arlpwe Arts Centre and Gallery, owned by the Arlpwe Artists Aboriginal Corporation,[10] started in 2008.[18][31][36] The name relates to the landscape around Ali Curung, "no waterhole, no rivers, only soakage and grass country"[10] from the Kaytetye country name Arlpawe and common noun arlpawe 'wide open space, clearing, flat country with no watercourses or hills'.[37]

A ninety minute film titled Kain, based on the story of Cain and Abel, was filmed partly at Warrabri by the ABC and BBC, and broadcast on the ABC in 1967. It starred Keith Michell, J. G. Devlin and Candy Devine, with Teddy Plummer, Michael Williams and other Ali Curung locals.[38][39][40]

No alcohol has ever been available or permitted at Ali Curung;[7] the nearest liquor outlet is at Wycliffe Well roadhouse on the Stuart Highway.[7]

Notable people

In 1970, Teddy Plummer (Warumungu), a foundation member of the Warrabri Cooperative, a member of the Warrabri Field Council,[41] and later a president of Ali Curung Council,[42] was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the community.[41] A road in Ali Curung is named Plummer Crescent in his honour.[43] Other past presidents of the Ali Curung Council, after whom streets in Ali Curung are named, include Billy Foster (Warumungu), Jack Jackson (Warlpiri) and Jimmy Newcastle (Warlmanpa/ Mudburra).[42] Roads are also named after George Brown (Warumungu/Warlpiri), the first Aboriginal police aide in Ali Curung; Tommy and Charlie Driver (Warlpiri), who were influential in the establishment of Warrabri; and Pete Peterson (Alyawarr), who helped keep harmony in Warrabri.[42] Country musician Gus Williams, from Ntaria, lived in Warrabri from 1976 to the early 1980s.[44] Long Pwerle, land rights activist and chairman of the Central Land Council from 1988-1992, died at his home in Ali Curung in 1992.[45]

In Daughters of the Dreaming, anthropologist Diane Bell wrote about many senior women in Ali Curung in the late 1970s who had knowledge and authority in ritual, kinship, ancestral landscapes and natural resources, referring to them by skin names rather than personal names.[8]: 1 

References
  1. "Place Names Register Extract for "Ali Curung"". NT Place Names Register. Northern Territory Government. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  2. "Climate statistics for Australian locations. Summary statistics ALI CURUNG". Bureau of Meteorology. Australian Government. 14 December 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  3. "2021 Ali Curung, Census All persons QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics". abs.gov.au. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  4. BushTel - Remote Communities of the Northern Territory
  5. Warrabri Settlement, Central Australia. Welfare Branch, Northern Territory Administration. July 1959.
  6. Lea, John P (1989). Government and the Community in Tennant Creek 1947-78. Darwin, NT: Australian National University North Australia Research Unit. ISBN 0731505409.
  7. Brady, Maggie (1988). Where the beer truck stopped : drinking in a northern Australian town : a research report. Darwin, NT: Australian National University North Australia Research Unit. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0731502736.
  8. Bell, Diane (1993). Daughters of the Dreaming (2nd ed.). St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1863734414.
  9. Hercus, Luise; Simpson, Jane (2002). "Indigenous Placenames: An Introduction". In Hercus, Luise; Hodges, Flavia; Simpson, Jane (eds.). The Land is a Map. Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia. Canberra, ACT: Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. p. 6. ISBN 1740760204.
  10. Murn, Alan; Flaherty, Louise (2009). Artists of the Barkly: Alekerenge, Ampalawitja, Epenarra, Waralungku, Kulumindini, Mungkarta, Mangalawurru, Canteen Creek, Julalikari Arts & Craft, Nyinkka Nyunyu. Tennant Creek, NT: Barkly Regional Arts; Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute. p. 6.
  11. Wright, Alexis (2017). Tracker. Giramondo Publishing. ISBN 9781925336603. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  12. Burgess, J; McGrath, N; Andrews, K; Wright, A (2016). Hill, J. V. (ed.). Soil and Land Suitability Assessment for Irrigated Agriculture in the Ali Curung Area, Western Davenport District (PDF). Darwin, NT: Rangelands Division, Department of Environment and Natural Resources. ISBN 9781743501160. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  13. Toohey, John; Office of the Aboriginal Land Commissioner (1979). Land claim by Alyawarra and Kaititja: Report by the Aboriginal Land Commissioner. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia. ISBN 0642041237.
  14. Viner, Ian (31 August 1978). "Presentation of land titles to N.T. Aboriginals". Parliament of Australia, Australian Parliamentary Library, Press releases database. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  15. Viner, Ian (4 September 1978). "Land titles presentation at Amoonguna". Parliament of Australia, Australian Parliamentary Library, Press releases database. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  16. "Parliamentary record : Part II questions (09 March - 16 March 1982)" (PDF). Territory Stories. Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  17. Wright, Alyson; Elvin, Ruth (2011). Assessing Shared Responsibility in Ali Curung (Desert Knowledge CRC Working Paper Number 82) (PDF). Alice Springs, NT: Ninti One Limited. ISBN 9781741582055. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  18. Moran, Mark (2016). Serious Whitefella Stuff: When solutions became the problem in Indigenous affairs. Melbourne, Victoria: Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN 9780522868302. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  19. McAdam, Elliot (17 October 2007). "Local Government Act NOTICE OF MAKING OF RE-STRUCTURING ORDERS ESTABLISHING PROSPECTIVE COUNCILS AND DEFERRING COUNCIL ELECTIONS" (PDF). Northern Territory of Australia Government Gazette (S31). ISSN 1038-233X. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  20. Knight, Daniel (30 June 2008). "Interpretation Act Notification of making of by-laws under Local Government Act" (PDF). Northern Territory of Australia Government Gazette (S30). ISSN 1038-233X. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  21. Tollner, David (18 December 2013). "Local Government Act CHANGES TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS AND COUNCILS" (PDF). The Northern Territory Government Gazette (G51). ISSN 0157-8324. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  22. Calma, Tom (2008). "9. Northern Territory intervention and Indigenous land". Native Title Report 2007 (PDF). Australian Human Rights Commission. pp. 187–190. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  23. Gibson, Paddy (2009). "Return to the Ration Days:The Northern Territory Intervention – Grass-Roots Experience and Resistance" (PDF). Ngiya: Talk the Law. 3. ISSN 1834-769X. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  24. Toohey, Paul (March 2011). "Hard times. Life after the intervention". The Monthly. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  25. "Alekarenge School, Ali Curung, NT". My School. ACARA - Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  26. "Clubs - Ali Curung". Australian Football. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  27. Horne, James A. (1975). "Report on the 1975 Warrabri Pulapa Wirri". Developing Education. 3 (2): 12–16.
  28. "Pulapa Wirri" (PDF). The Tennant Times. No. 41. Tennant Creek, NT. 7 May 1976. p. 1. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  29. "Gerry McCarthy MLA - Dance Festival Issue, Ali Curung" (PDF). Territory Stories. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  30. "Ali Curung Dance Festival". AusStage - The Australian Live Performance Database. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  31. "Ali Curung art gallery a masterpiece of its managers". Tennant & District Times. Tennant Creek, Northern Territory. 18 April 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  32. "Warrabri Visits Willowra" (PDF). The Tennant Times. No. 90. Tennant Creek, NT. 29 April 1977. p. 4. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  33. "Ali-Curung Spinifex Band" (CD). Trove. (in Alyawarr, Warlpiri, and English). Humpty Doo, N.T.: Christian Indigenous Media Resources. n.d. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  34. Chriscans (10 November 2009). "Brian Murphy & Band Nomadic". Last.FM. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  35. Simpson, Jane (10 August 2010). "Another life gone - wiyarrpa". Endangered Language and Cultures. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  36. Nardoo, Robyn; Mulcahy, Shane (2009). Artists of Ali Curung (digital). Kanopy Streaming. Event occurs at 22 min. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  37. Kaytetye to English dictionary. Turpin, Myfany, 1972-, Ross, Alison. Alice Springs, N.T.: IAD Press. 2012. ISBN 978-1-86465-118-8. OCLC 951494849.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  38. "The SMH TV Guide". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, NSW. 17 April 1967. p. 2. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  39. ""The Age" TV-Radio Guide". The Age. Melbourne, Victoria. 12 June 1969. p. 9. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  40. "Kain | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  41. "Government Gazette Notices". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 3. Australia. 15 January 1970. p. 335. Retrieved 7 September 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  42. "Place Names Act NAMING OF PLACES - Schedule" (PDF). Placenames NT. Northern Territory Government. 15 April 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  43. "Place Names Register Extract: Plummer Crescent". NT Place Names Register. Northern Territory Government. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  44. "Hands of Fame: Gus WILLIAMS OAM (2000)". Australian Country Music Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 15 March 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  45. "A fighter for land rights". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, NSW. 23 April 1992. p. 8. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
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