A former board member of the Northern Territory's sacred sites watchdog AAPA has spoken out a day after her snap resignation. Rachel Perkins has described extreme distress among fellow board members who she says were compelled to approve a certificate permitting construction of an 11-storey hotel at the Darwin Waterfront. The NT government has welcomed the approval, made possible under new laws. But Larrakia custodians are planning legal action, potentially further delaying the troubled development.
00:00A celebrated film director, a proud Urunda and Kalkidan woman, and until yesterday, a board member of the authority in charge of protecting Aboriginal sacred sites in the Northern Territory.
00:13It's an organisation that I've been aware of all my life and it's held in really high regard, so of course when I was asked, I accepted.
00:22Perkins' sudden resignation in response to plans to build an 11-storey hotel at Darwin's waterfront precinct, now given the green light despite claims it will desecrate a sacred site,
00:34and made possible by new territory laws, allowing the developer's name to be added to a 20-year-old certificate, which she says was issued for a completely different purpose.
00:43It was marina-orientated commercial activities. Now the certificate is being revived for an 11-storey building.
00:53Now free to air her concerns in public, Perkins says it's caused extreme distress for fellow ARPA board members,
01:00who believe they'd face legal action from the NT government if they refused to sign off on the development.
01:06Along with some Larrakia traditional owners, Perkins believes the NT government made changes to the Sacred Sights Act
01:12with a view to expedite construction, even though the Singaporean developer had already applied for a brand new sacred site certificate.
01:21The applicant then withdrew that certificate and then shortly after the laws were changed.
01:27Now you don't have to be a genius to put two and two together and work out the cause and effect of what's happened here.
01:38A claim the NT's acting Chief Minister strongly denied on ABC local radio this morning.
01:43Have you just done the changes to the Sacred Sights Act to ensure you could get this development going?
01:48Absolutely not, Brashi. That is just so far away from what we've done.
01:52What we've done is we've brought certainty into the industry.
01:55Further condemnation of the decision today from Larrakia man Eric Feijo,
02:00who says written history of cultural and material dispossession on the Darwin waterfront dates back to the 1870s.
02:07The language for ceremonies and corroborees and all that has been diluted where our ceremonies are our religious practices.
02:14Our sacred sites are our cathedrals.
02:16Mr Feijo commends Perkins for resigning from the ARPA board and has encouraged others to do the same.
02:22There's been no reciprocation on trying to work together with First Nations on this.
02:26How can we work with people like that?
02:28And like I said, ARPA was the gatekeeper for us and they were honourable, integrity and they had soul.
02:35The certificate, you know, you might as well just like tear it up and throw it away because it's just not worth its weight in paper.
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