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Men’s Place officially opens with traditional dances and emotional tributes

Sept 05, 2024

Services: Codes 4 Life

On one of the warmest win­ter days on record in Alice Springs, an audi­ence gath­ered to wit­ness the offi­cial open­ing of the new­ly cre­at­ed Artwe-ken­he ilthe (Men’s Space) at the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct, designed by Abo­rig­i­nal men, for Abo­rig­i­nal men. It will be a safe place for dif­fer­ent men’s groups to prac­tise cul­ture, dis­cuss dif­fi­cult issues, and togeth­er bol­ster their men­tal health and wellbeing.

The open­ing began with a smok­ing cer­e­mo­ny, the audi­ence walk­ing between two fires and through the plumes of smoke before tak­ing their seats. We faced out across a patch of red sand, much red­der than what is nat­u­ral­ly there, and which now marks out the cer­e­mo­ni­al dance ground. 29 tonnes had been deliv­ered by truck to form the new men’s cer­e­mo­ni­al per­for­mance ground some weeks before. 

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Three inter­twined rib­bons, one red, one yel­low, one black, were tied between two sig­nif­i­cant cork­wood trees beside a small stage. Beyond the dance ground stood a col­lec­tion of chairs for the singers. And behind that the new­ly con­struct­ed wilt­ja (shade struc­ture), a place built for men to hold future meet­ings and take part in well­be­ing workshops.

A women’s place giv­en to men

Our pri­ma­ry host, Marie Ellis, one of the kir­da (tra­di­tion­al own­ers) of this piece of coun­try, south and at some dis­tance from the clus­ter build­ings on the 73-hectare Precinct, shared the cre­ation sto­ry for where we sat. She empha­sised that tra­di­tion­al­ly this had been a wom­en’s place. 

This is a women’s place, but as women, we need to sup­port our men. We need to sup­port them men­tal­ly, so they have a healthy mind­set. So, they make good choic­es in their lives, for their com­mu­ni­ty, their fam­i­ly, their wives. Our men are impor­tant, and this ground here is ded­i­cat­ed to them, so they have a safe place to come to be togeth­er, to talk about their health, and what they need to move forward.”

A trib­ute to an advo­cate and leader

A trib­ute was also made to the late Robert Hoosan, who this ground will be named after. He was an Anan­gu man from the Aputu­la (Finke) com­mu­ni­ty who built the first wilt­ja in this space, not far from the new one. He cham­pi­oned the idea of bring­ing cul­tur­al­ly appro­pri­ate trau­ma-informed ther­a­py to tra­di­tion­al lands as part of his role as a youth work­er for Cre­at­ing a Safe Sup­port­ive Envi­ron­ment (CASSE).

He was well respect­ed and remem­bered for his fierce advo­ca­cy in cam­paigns against domes­tic vio­lence and for rais­ing the age of crim­i­nal respon­si­bil­i­ty in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry to the age of 12. He was also a found­ing mem­ber of the NPY Women’s Coun­cil Uti Kulin­t­jaku Watiku (men’s clear think­ing) pro­gram set up by men to address domes­tic violence. 

Hoosan is the broth­er-in-law of Marie Ellis, and oth­er mem­bers of the Hoosan fam­i­ly were also in atten­dance. The rib­bons were cut as part of the offi­cial Abo­rig­i­nal nam­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the Robert Hoosan Ground.

Dance cer­e­mo­ny

We were then joined by an old­er group of men who took their seats as our musi­cians. The dancers then came out from behind the hes­s­ian, young men and boys from East­ern Arrernte, Antuyle, West­ern Arrernte and Anmaty­erre groups. The cer­e­monies per­formed inter­link across these dif­fer­ent groups, strength­en­ing trib­al alliances.

They looked impres­sive in the gold­en light as the sun dipped, dressed in tra­di­tion­al garb and paint­ed up, hav­ing spent the after­noon in prepa­ra­tion. The red paint on their skin comes from crushed red ochre. The white dec­o­ra­tion is made from grass­es crushed up with white ochre.

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Pho­to: Oliv­er Eclipse. Audi­ence mem­bers touch the dancers’ backs as part of the ceremony.

The Pos­sum men per­formed a dance that’s been prac­tised for thou­sands of years, used as a wel­com­ing or farewell cer­e­mo­ny for spe­cial occa­sions. The back­ing songs and the dance itself tell sto­ries of the pos­sum, how it trav­elled and pre­pared for fights.

After the per­for­mances, every audi­ence mem­ber was invit­ed to come for­ward and place a hand on each of the dancers’ backs in turn as they sat in a line fac­ing away from the crowd. In lieu of a gift, this touch is offered as a way of giv­ing thanks to the dancers. It was an emo­tion­al scene, the audi­ence tak­ing its time over these moments of connection.

And this wasn’t the only chance for audi­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion. The women were also invit­ed up onto the ground with Marie Ellis and oth­er women to join their tra­di­tion­al but­ter­fly dance.

It was a beau­ti­ful evening, and the audi­ence cer­tain­ly felt very includ­ed in the cer­e­mo­ny, con­nect­ing to the men and the new pur­pose of this place. It was an hon­our to be able to launch the Men’s Space at the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct, lead­ing into Children’s Ground’s Apmerenge-ntyele Fes­ti­val: From the Land.

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Pho­to: Oliv­er Eclipse, www​.eclipse8me​.com

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