Local Community & Culture
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.