Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, August 6, 2013 — 3

NEWS

Caleb’s project to transform city

Caleb Maru (right) is running a project to rid the city of graffiti and replace it with street art

Monika O'Hanlon

THE sky is the limit forYear 11 student CalebMaru, who is transformingthe walls of Alice Springsand turning offensivegraffiti into incrediblestreet art.

The 15-year-old who at-tends St Philips College ison the Chief Minister’sRound Table for YoungTerritorians, and as part ofthe program he is under-taking a project to benefitthe town.

The idea of the scheme isto decrease the amount ofillegal graffiti by organisingwalls in the region whereartists can create stunningstreet art.

Caleb said the idea hadcome from another grouphe was involved in last year.

‘‘I was in a program calledthe Youth Desert Leader-ship Program, and in ourgroup had to design a plan,’’he said.

‘‘We started to focus ongraffiti because it wasn’ttoo difficult to tackle andwe could work on it.

‘‘In that program welooked towards doingthings, we organised andplanned but we didn’tphysically do anything, so Idecided to continue thescheme through the YouthRound Table.’’

Caleb’s project has begunat Alice Springs YouthCentre’s wall oppositeAnzac Oval car park, andhe has organised young

street artists to cover thewall with masterpieces.

‘‘We are now in phaseone, which was findinga wall, trialling it andseeing how it works out,’’said Caleb.

‘‘That way we can estim-ate how much graffiti

we need and get artiststogether.

‘‘Phase two is to findanother wall and get artiststo work together on onegiant piece.

‘‘If the project doesimprove the graffiti aroundtown, maybe some could be

hired to run an ongoingproject to improve thegraffiti issue.’’

Caleb has his sights seton a future in internationaldevelopment.

‘‘My parents are fromEthiopia so I really want towork for the UN and do

some kind of developmentwork there.’’

Caleb is looking for localbusinesses or groups whohave a wall to use.

To get involved or to do-nate art supplies, Caleb canbe contacted via email atcaleb.maru@hotmail.com.

Ministerrefutesreporton landrentsTHE Centralian Advocatelast Tuesday published theclaims of Central LandCouncil chair MaurieJaparta Ryan that thecommunity of Ali Curungwas one of many Aborig-inal communities owedpayments by the FederalGovernment under itsfive-year-lease.

Mr Ryan said the Com-monwealth had not paidany rent at all and, as such,that was reflected in theCentralian Advocate head-lines: ‘‘Show Us The Cash- Federal Government isfive years behind in rentpayments for Ali Curung’’and ‘‘Flak over unpaidrent’’.

Mr Ryan’s claims areunfounded and incorrect.

Indigenous Affairs Min-ister Jenny Macklin, in aresponse to the CentralianAdvocate given prior to thestory being published,made it clear all moniesowed had been paid.

This is the Minister’s fullresponse: ‘‘The AustralianGovernment is committedto paying appropriate rentand compensation to landowners where leases wereacquired under the North-ern Territory NationalEmergency Response Act2007.

‘‘The Government hasnow settled all rent andcompensation paymentsfor the five-year leases ac-quired under the NorthernTerritory National Emerg-ency Response Act 2007.This includes agreementwith the Central LandCouncil on rent and com-pensation for all com-munities in its region, in-cluding Ali Curung.

‘‘The Australian Gov-ernment has also beenclear that it will not takeout further compulsoryleases and has been nego-tiating voluntary longterm leases to allow forhousing and other infra-structure.

‘‘A voluntary 40-yearsocial housing lease wasexecuted for Ali Curung in2013.’’

Town criers on songCorey Sinclair

TOWN criers from all around thecountry will descend on Alice Springslater this month for the Ancient andHonourable Guild of Australian TownCriers 23rd National Championships.

Alice Springs town crier DavidMortimer has been doing his job forthree years, and he has even com-peted in Maryborough and Moree.

Mr Mortimer said despite not beingable to compete in this year’s cham-pionships because he was on thehosting committee, he was lookingforward to see the crowd of colourfulcostumes.

‘‘Mine is quite ordinary compared totheirs,’’ he said.

‘‘I have a problem that they don’thave – I have to have a costume inwhich I can get warm in winter andalso get cool in summer.’’

Mr Mortimer said the town criers

were fiercely competitive but alsovery entertaining.

‘‘What happens in the competitionis they have to perform two cries, andthere are very strict rules about theperformance they give,’’ he said.

‘‘It must contain between 100 and125 words, and we give them one oftheir cries – a theme cry.’’

This year’s theme cry will be‘‘Truckies Carry Australia, All RoadsLead to the Alice!’’ which will beperformed at the Road TransportHall of Fame from 9.15am till 12pm onFriday August 23.

You can also get the chance to meetthe town criers in their full costumesat the Alice Springs Town Councilnight markets to be held on Thurs-day, August 22.

The town criers will also be in theTodd Mall from 10.30am on Saturday,August 24, performing their ‘‘homecry’’, which will be followed by a

presentation of trophies.

Mr Mortimer said he was Alice

Springs’ third town cryer.

‘‘They were running an ad and I washeading into retirement,’’ he said. ‘‘Asa shrinking violet, I thought ‘whynot?’’’

Alice Springs Mayor Damien Ryansaid the council was very excited to behosting the 23rd National Town CriersChampionships.

‘‘We encourage people to come alongto watch the Theme Cry at the RoadTransport Hall of Fame on FridayAugust 23 and then the Home Cry onSaturday, August 24, in the northernend of the Todd Mall,’’ he said.

‘‘We are looking forward to thevariety and spirit that Town Criersfrom around Australia will be bringingto Alice Springs.’’

Teen heldover theftsA 15-year-old male has beencharged after being foundto be in possession of a largequantity of stolen propertyin Alice Springs.

Detective SuperintendentBrent Warren said the boywas apprehended aftervisiting a jewellery store toget an appraisal on anOmega Seamaster watch,which caused the storeowner to become suspicious.

‘‘Investigations confirmedthat the watch, worth thou-sands of dollars, had beenstolen from a vehicle onBarrett Drive on July 30,’’Superintendent Warrensaid.

The youth was arrestedand police recovered morestolen property valued at$13,730. He was charged withreceiving stolen property.

Owners object to park explorationMluleki Moyo

‘Traditional owners have

previously agreed to

exploration in areas

outside the park, and it is

only within the boundaries

of the park that they

object

’

AN application by Palatine En-ergy Pty Ltd to begin oil and gasexploration around the WatarrkaNational Park 350 kilometressouthwest of Alice Springs isfacing strong opposition fromtraditional owners who havecalled on the NT Cabinet to blockthe application.

According to Central LandCouncil, at a meeting held inMarch this year traditionalowners expressed concern aboutthe impact on the cultural valuesand flora and fauna of the park,and were strongly and uncondit-ionally opposed to any explorat-ion in the park.

CLC Director David Ross said

allowing exploration in Watarrkacut across the core values of thejoint management agreement.

‘‘It is an extremely disturbingidea which violates the very ideaof national parks,’’ he said.

‘‘I thought that the whole ideaof declaring national parks was toprotect those areas from this typeof activity.

‘‘Traditional owners say theyare also concerned for their tour-ist businesses and for tourismgenerally in the area.

‘‘The exploration applicationscover the entire park and ifgranted, would lead to a range ofexploration activity and may in-clude hydraulic fraccing.

‘‘Traditional owners have pre-

viously agreed to exploration inareas outside the park, and it isonly within the boundaries of thepark that they object.’’

The park is owned by theWatarrka Park Land Trust underNT freehold on behalf of the

traditional landowners and

jointly managed by the tradit-ional owners and the Parks andWildlife Commission of theNorthern Territory.

Mr Ross said traditional ownershad a duty to protect the parkunder joint management legis-lation and through traditionalcultural obligations.

A large number of groups areassociated with the park and thetraditional owners have obli-gations to them as well.

The park hosts many signifi-cant cultural sites, is a renownedtourist destination and supports arich and diverse number ofspecies and habitats.

A number of threatened speciesare found there also.

The traditional owners also saidthey had worked hard to get smalltourist businesses off the groundand the park had provided jobsand opportunities for their youngpeople.

The plan also notes that thepark protects one of Australia’smost stunning natural and cul-tural environments and contrib-utes significantly to biodiversityconservation and the Territoryeconomy.

Letters from the traditionalowners have been sent to cabinetministers and the Northern Terr-itory Government says the pro-posal will be considered at thenext cabinet meeting.