Construction of First Nations cultural centre in SA halted amid budget blowout
Work on Tarrkarri, slated as “the world’s leading First Nations cultural centre”, has been suspended amid cost blowouts.
The construction of Tarrkarri, which means “the future” in Kaurna, began in December 2021 in Adelaide, and it was due to open in 2025.
In 2018, Scott Morrison, former prime minister, pledged $85m towards the centre as part of a “city deal” for Adelaide, with other funds coming from the state government.
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, announced on Monday that there would now be a review into the building after the $200m budget blew out by $50m amid surging construction costs.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create something truly extraordinary,” he said.
“So I am announcing today that we are taking a moment … that we will be conducting a review into the plan for the centre to ensure that what we build is a truly world class artistic cultural institution.”
Malinauskas said that with the current budget, the centre wouldn’t reach the goal of being internationally significant and “truly magnificent”.
“A centre celebrating the longest continuous culture on earth, celebrating 60,000 years of history … must do justice to the cultures that it seeks to represent,” he said.
“In that context, good isn’t good enough.”
Two weeks ago, Malinauskas told state parliament the government remained committed to the plan, and there had been no change to its policy.
Ken Wyatt, former Indigenous Australians minister, will work with Bob Carr, former foreign affairs minister, and Carolyn Hewson, business leader, on the review, which will report early next year.
Several people have told Guardian Australia there is some confusion about whether the SA centre will compete with or complement another planned national Aboriginal arts and cultural centre in Canberra, announced in July.
Australia’s largest collection of Aboriginal cultural artefacts is held in South Australia, much of it in a suburban warehouse where it has been under threat from insects and rain.
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The SA Museum’s Netley collection is being preserved and catalogued, and some of it is likely destined for Tarrkarri. Meanwhile, a new temperature and humidity-controlled storage facility, with integrated pest control and fire protection is being built.
Along with cultural artefacts and art, Tarrkarri is planned to be an “immersive” storytelling facility.
Malinauskas was speaking at Purrumpa, a week-long conference on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and culture. Purrumpa is being held 50 years after the Australia Council started funding First Nations arts.
Also at Purrumpa, the arts minister, Tony Burke, said there needed to be a mechanism established to give First Nations people power over their own creations.
“How do we establish a mechanism that allows there to be financial power for First Nations artists, when dealing with non-First Nations companies, so that the power of creator isn’t lost by the time it reaches the audience?” Burke asked, adding that a body could be created within the Australia Council to allow artists authority and autonomy.
Such a body could also work with training colleges to ensure a “pipeline of people being trained to be curators”, he said, so that planned cultural institutions do not end up being run by non-First Nations people.
The government is yet to settle on a final plan, Burke said.
The federal Indigenous affairs minister, Linda Burney, told the conference the planned referendum for a Voice to parliament was a “once in a generation” opportunity to “make structural change that will see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people flourish”.
“We’re the only first world nation with a colonial story that does not recognise first peoples in the constitution in the way that it should be,” she said.
“It doesn’t recognise that continuous surviving culture. It doesn’t recognise the issues of connection to country.”
But the planned referendum cannot be the “plaything of politicians”, she said.
“If it is, it will fail.”