The Storm

major upheaval over the last few days with the dream run coming to an abrupt obstacle. got home from the art centre on thurday afternoon, half hour later someone turned up and was trying to get in through my gate, i went out, only to be asked 'who are you?' i didnt answer but just asked the same thing back. he was some form of council site manager, i explained who i was and what i was doing here, only for him to laugh, tell me i had no right to be staying here, and would have to evacute the premises immediatly. i explained that jane had organised for me to stay here, but he wasnt particularly interested, and didnt go and speak to her as i suggested, just got in his car and drove off. i went and told jane what had happened, he came back, repeated what he said about me moving out. to add to it all, it was getting dark and a thunderstorm was building up. so we are all standing in the rain arguing, the urgency being he apparently had staff of his that he had arranged to stay in here tonight. i still think there was more to that because he was demanding i left, in the rain, with no other options to go to, whilst he had other places where his staff could have stayed locally. told me i had an hour and he'd be back. jane went to try and make some calls, except being after office hours it was nearly impossible to get a hold of anyone. she was adamant that he had no right to turn up like that, and that i shouldnt pack anything, and we should sit it out. next time he came back he threatened calling the police if we continued to stay. our only real option we had was to pack my stuff into the back of her car and drive the 2hrs back into alice springs in the rain and dark and find a hotel for a night or 2 untill the problem was sorted. we sat it out a bit longer, he finally came back and said i could stay that night but had to be out first thing in the morning.

he came back friday morning, didnt speak to me but had a go at jane, saying that we had till 2pm, when he'd return with the police. there isnt a police presence in titjikala, nearest station is in santa teresa community, im not entirely sure how far away that is. whether he was right or wrong, the way he was going about getting his way was out of line for a public servant, or for anyone for that matter. we have since found out there is not a lot he or the police can do without a court order stating that they are right and that it is a council owned property and not community owned, and that i actually am here illegally.

the whole problem has arisen out of the federal governments intervention plans for nothern territory communities - the Northern Territory National Emergency Response which took ownership of a lot of land and property back from communities and placed under these shire super councils under 5 year leases. this property was under council ownership, but was apparently then no longer on their asset register, so was back under community ownership, which meant jane was perfectly within her rights to allow me to stay here, thats just not the opinion of the council. they have not been able to prove it belongs to them, or follow normal legal eviction procedures.

so i sat 90% packed waiting for 2pm friday, which came and went with no sign of the council manager or the police. jane, and simon from the art school had been in touch with the council CEO who has no intention of backing down. jane had attempted to call lawyers in alice springs but everyone that she called had some dealing with macdonnell shire council and refused to speak to her because of conflicts of interest. it is a long weekend her which is good and bad, good in that we will probably be left alone untill tuesday and i should be right to stay here till then, but bad because it means that we still have no resolution and so i have no idea, from tuesday onwards, what will happen. main problem being that there is one option for short term accomodation for a night or 2 but not long term for the rest of the trip, untill the end of september.

jane had driven around and spoken to some of the women that come into the art centre to tell them what was happening. even though there is not a lot they can do, its a very unique situation to be in the middle of a residency dispute with the backing of aboriginal elders on your side.

nothing else really happened on friday, just more phone calls to various advocacy groups for the art centres etc trying to find out where we stand. at the moment, the general concensus is that we stay put, and see what develops, but also that the council are unlikely to back down anytime soon, so to be prepared to get out, and have an 'exit strategy' in place....

if the thought of being homeless in the desert in the rain was a little easier to handle, i'd probably find this vaguely amusing. i can imagine my best buddy rohan from the council riding in on horseback to make claim for his land.

makes for a good story...

will update as it unfolds.