A prominent Top End leader has called for more statues to showcase and celebrate successful Indigenous women in the Territory.
NT Australian of the Year 2022, Arrernte woman Leanne Liddle, told ABC Radio Darwin that it comes to immortalising leading figures in bronze.
“I don’t see statues of Aboriginal women that have done magnificent stuff around the Northern Territory,” she said.
“I don’t see us showcasing and celebrating the worth of Aboriginal people and the struggles that they’ve done, whether they’re here with us now or they’ve passed."
When Ms Liddle visits her hometown of Alice Springs she sees the John Flynn memorial and the controversial John McDouall Stuart statue.
She wants to see Indigenous women getting the same platforms to showcase their successes and the challenges they’ve overcome.
“You’ll be surprised at how many amazing Aboriginal women are out there and what they’ve achieved," she said.
“What they don’t get is that platform to showcase that success and we don’t have a platform to go back and look at the challenges that those Aboriginal women have faced and are still fighting today."
While there are few, Indigenous female statues do exist across the Top End.
Anmatjere Woman and Child statue at Aileron Roadhouse, Northern Territory Source: Supplied
The most prominent include the ‘Anmatjere Woman’ statue in Aileron and the ‘Stolen Generations’ statue in Palmerston - both women are unnamed.
Darwin is set to welcome a bronze statue of local icon and Olympic gold medalist Nova Peris.
The 2.4m statue was revealed in Federation square in Melbourne last May and will be moved to its permanent place in Darwin where Ms Peris grew up in a housing commission called Kurringal Flats.
When the statue was revealed Ms Peris said “This is for all the Aboriginal children out there who are super talented. I want them to see black excellence because … you can’t be what you can’t see.
“There’s a lot of statues of the colonisers and we can’t relate to those. This we can relate to,” she said.
Former Olympian Nova Peris and her son Jack alongside a statue of her in Melbourne Source: Twitter: Nova Peris OAM OLY
