Episode 1030 Hope for a Brighter Future: Indigenous Leadership in Alice Springs

Hi everyone, welcome, welcome. This is episode 1030 of Blind Magic in Alice Springs and I am your presenter and host Murray Stewart.

It is fair and true to say that there is a lot of dysfunctionality and despair in many of our Aboriginal communities here in Central Australia. Yes, it's absolutely fair to say that, and sadly, it is the truth. But, you know, I have been here for 25 years, and I can tell you that here in Central Australia, there are many Aboriginal families that have formed the backbone, of Alice Springs and its thriving community. Yes, there are many families, just like any other family, who are Indigenous, who are hard-working, intelligent, well-educated, and who have added to the fabric of Alice Springs over many, many years.

I have anointed many of those families, athletes, yeah, they're young people, and others into the League of Champions here in Alice Springs for their sporting exploits. And we also, that is the Desert Sports Foundation, have been able to support many of their children as they head away to compete in sporting events away from Alice Springs. Yeah, they have been some of the very, very best community members we have ever had. Strong families, good families, educated families, wonderful people.

I have got hope for Indigenous Affairs now at the parliamentary level. In yesterday's reshuffle by the Prime Minister of Australia, he elevated Northern Territory's Melandiri McCarthy to the role of Indigenous Affairs Minister. I think this is a terrific move, an absolutely terrific move. I had the good fortune to meet Melandiri when she was a minister in the then Northern Territory government back in 2005 or 2006 under Paul Henderson's leadership. Yeah, I met her at a basketball game here in Central Australia. A wonderful woman, once again, extremely well educated and very, very articulate. And she, I think she actually has a disabled son. I think he played wheelchair basketball, which is, I think, one of the main reasons why she was at the event, supporting the Basketball Association in the Northern Territory.

And also like Jacinta Napa Jinka Price, an outstanding person, yeah, the opposition spokesperson for Indigenous Affairs. So both of them, I think, can actually work together rather than against one another because both of them know the full picture. They know the truthful picture of where things are at, and I think they can work toward ensuring better results for Indigenous folk, not only in the Northern Territory, but also federally, because there's no doubt that Alice Springs is in crisis because of what's been going on in this space. So, yeah, I do think these two wonderful women can work together in the best interest of all of us, not just Indigenous people, because a strong Indigenous community will be a strong Alice Springs and a strong Northern Territory and a better Australia. No doubt about it.

But I'm sure Melandiri McCarthy won't be putting up with this continuation of the woe is me story and the victimhood mentality. No, she won't. She's far better than that. And I think both these women can work together. I so hope that that is the case because they are very special women and they certainly do know the wood from the trees. Yes, they're not going to have anything put over them, I can assure you.

So I do have hope. I absolutely do have hope. Despite, as I said, the dysfunctionality and the despair currently felt here in Central Australia, and we see a lot of that despair and dysfunctionality in Indigenous communities played out on our streets here in Alice Springs, I do believe if there's two people who can work together, it's these two women, Jacinta Nabuchika-Price and Melandiri McCarthy. She has a wonderful history, Melandiri McCarthy, here in the Northern Territory. She started out as an ABC television news presenter. Then she became a minister in the Northern Territory Government, as I say, and now she's been elevated to the position of Indigenous Affairs Minister.

I have hope. I truly do have hope that we might be in for a brand new era of enlightenment and positive behaviour when it comes to fixing these issues in the Indigenous communities and across the Northern Territory and Australia as a whole. Yes, I do. I'm very, very positive and bullish about what might come out of this.

Okay, folks, this has been and always will be Episode 1030 of Blind Magic Communications Production.