APY Lands Visit

Mr DULUK (Waite) (14:19): Thank you very much, sir. My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on his recent trip to the APY lands?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:19): I would like to thank the member for Waite for his question, and I would also like to thank him for his service on the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee. I first served on the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee in 2010, and I can still remember the very first time I made my trip up there. I think I was joined by the member for Florey when we made our first trip up there. I have to say, on my first visit I probably overreached in terms of what I thought were solutions for a very complex set of circumstances on the APY lands at the time.

I have made a trip back to the APY lands every year that I have been in the parliament, and I made my ninth trip last week, where I was up there for three days. It is certainly a very, very incredible part of our state. The far north-west of our state is stunning. Often when we acknowledge country, it is sometimes difficult in a built-up area to really appreciate the spiritual connection that people have with their lands, when we have built over their lands. On the APY lands—the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands—you can really understand and fully comprehend the undeniable spiritual connect which exists between the Anangu and their sacred land.

I travelled over 1,200 kilometres on my recent trip. On this visit, I visited Indulkana, Pukatja, Fregon, Mimili and, for the very first time, Kenmore Park. I have to say that, as per usual, I enjoyed visiting the arts centres on the APY lands, and I particularly want to acknowledge the work done by the arts centre managers and their boards. They are Anangu controlled and bring a lot of non-welfare money onto the APY lands. They are in very remote and often harsh settings, often without the requirements they need to conduct their work effectively. Nevertheless, they are beacons of capability. In fact, I think there are more nationally and internationally recognised artistic superstars on the APY lands than just about any other place on this earth.

I was very, very pleased to visit and meet with some of those outstanding people. This visit, I was particularly pleased to meet with Alec Baker at Indulkana, of Iwantja Arts. He was one of the people who formed that art centre when it was originally founded. Alec, along with the artists at Iwantja Arts, has been winning all sorts of prizes nationally, including the Hadley's Art Prize last year.

I also made a special trip to Ernabella Arts in Pukatja this year, because they are celebrating the 70^th anniversary of their establishment. This is an excellent art centre which not only has the traditional painting form but which also, in recent years, has expanded out into ceramics. On that visit, I was able to meet with Pepai Jangala Carroll, who has works represented in collections right around the country, including the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

In the remaining moments I have left, I would also like to acknowledge that there is a lot of work that the federal government has been doing on the APY lands to address the very significant problem associated with mobile phone blackspots and lack of coverage. The federal government has put significant funding in. This is really allowing access to people on the lands, for virtually the very first time, to the internet and other advantages that flow through that. I will continue to visit the APY lands on an annual basis during my time in this place, and I am particularly pleased to be making my very first visit there as the Premier of this state.