Living in Alice

Alice Springs Town Council

Alice Springs Town Council’s vision is for a vibrant and grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty that embraces its diverse cul­tur­al her­itage, unique iden­ti­ty and desert liv­ing environment.

With this vision front of mind, Council’s staff poli­cies aim to con­sol­i­date and strength­en the exist­ing con­nec­tion with Abo­rig­i­nal Peo­ples by focus­ing atten­tion on sen­si­tive, prac­ti­cal ways to recruit, retain, and build last­ing rela­tion­ships with employ­ees from the local Indige­nous community.

Council’s action­able strate­gies are also designed to guide all its employ­ees for­ward in their cul­tur­al aware­ness, and to encour­age fur­ther engage­ment and fos­ter­ing of con­nec­tions between non-Abo­rig­i­nal and Indige­nous colleagues.

Arrernte

The Arrernte (pro­nounced Arrun­da) peo­ple are the tra­di­tion­al own­ers of Mparn­twe (pro­nounced m’barn-twa) – the Alice Springs area.

Arrernte sto­ries describe how the land­scape sur­round­ing Alice, includ­ing the Mac­Don­nell Ranges, was cre­at­ed by the actions of their ances­tors, the cater­pil­lar beings Ayepe-arenye, Ntyarlke and Utnerren­gatye.

There are many tra­di­tion­al sto­ries involv­ing the shap­ing of the local land­scape by ances­tral fig­ures and as such, there are many sites of sig­nif­i­cance to the Arrernte peo­ple in and around Alice Springs.

Town Camps

The Alice Springs Com­mu­ni­ty Liv­ing Areas (also known as town camps) are Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties with­in the town­ship. Town camps fall under the juris­dic­tion of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment, which retains fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty for pro­vid­ing munic­i­pal and essen­tial ser­vices for the man­age­ment of hous­ing, open spaces, roads, parks and com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres with­in town camp areas. Fur­ther infor­ma­tion can be found here. Tan­gen­tyere Coun­cil is the ser­vice deliv­ery agency for the 18 town camps in Alice Springs.

Reflect Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Action Plan

Alice Springs Town Coun­cil is proud to endorse our Reflect Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Action Plan (RAP), con­tin­u­ing our jour­ney towards gen­uine reconciliation. 

Launched at a spe­cial Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Week com­mu­ni­ty bar­be­cue, the Reflect RAP was cre­at­ed with frame­work pre­scribed by Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Aus­tralia as its ba­sis. It out­lines prac­ti­cal actions and goals aimed at cre­at­ing sig­nif­i­cant and last­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ples. It has been guid­ed through feed­back from key stake­hold­ers, includ­ing Lhere Arte­pe, Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Aus­tralia and Alice Springs Town Coun­cil staff. It marks the con­tin­u­a­tion of Council’s jour­ney for change to be last­ing and effec­tive, a jour­ney that does not have a fin­ish line.

The Alice Springs Town Coun­cil Reflect Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Action Plan can be read here: 

2024 Reflect Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Action Plan