NT: Jedda star's new role in Desert Knowledge

00-00-0000
NT: Jedda star's new role in Desert Knowledge

By Rod McGuirk

ALICE SPRINGS, NT, Aug 28 AAP - Australia's first Aboriginal movie star, Rose Kunoth-Monks,was shocked to be offered a new role in developing international understanding of deserts.

The central desert-born Arrernte woman who played the lead role in the 1950s CharlesChauval classic Jedda today gave a keynote address to a conference in Alice Springs onhow her people co-existed with an arid environment.

Now a 65-year-old indigenous educator, Ms Kunoth-Monks told delegates of the DesertKnowledge Symposium from the United States, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and China of what water,a scarce commodity, meant to her growing up on Eutopia station.

The symposium is a step towards creating a Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centrein the outback to export desert-appropriate technologies.

Ms Kunoth-Monks, who is deputy chair of the Northern Territory's Batchelor Institutefor Indigenous Territory Education, said she was grateful to be part of the committeebehind Desert Knowledge Australia which will be incorporated soon.

The philosophy behind Desert Knowledge Australia is to expand the pastoral and mining-basedeconomies of outback Australia into technology and education.

"I cannot get over the fact that I was invited to be part of the steering committeeof Desert Knowledge Australia," Ms Kunoth-Monks said.

"It took my breath away. Because it expands my caring and my input and how I perceivethe country and the land and the trees."

Ms Kunoth-Monks said the wider community was now paying attention to the indigenousperspective of desert land management.

"It's become apparent to me that modern society which was so full of self is now beginningto reach out and look at the sustainability not only of the country or the earth but ofthemselves," she said.

"The dominant culture in Australia are beginning to realise that the land is fragile.

"For us, it's an opportunity also to look beyond this land and into the world."

The conference was told the population of the Australian desert is increasingly becomingAboriginal.

The Aboriginal population of arid Australia is expected to increase by 22.4 per centin the first 15 years of this century, Alice Springs-based scientist Dr Bruce Walker said.

In the same period, the larger non-indigenous population is expected to increase byonly 1.5 per cent.

The conference, launched today by Governor-General Peter Hollingworth in person andPrime Minister John Howard by video, is a centrepiece of the Year of the Outback celebrations.

AAP rmg/ph

KEYWORD: OUTBACK KUNOTH