In 2015 Aṟa Irititja received an Outstanding Project Award which was presented by the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM), and is an international award recognising the project’s achievements. Sally Scales accompanied John and Dora to Washington DC where she spoke to over 600 participants in Pitjantjatjara, thanking them and sharing her culture. It was very exciting and moving to see Sally on
the stage.
John and Sally in Washington at the award presentation.
In 2016 we were runners up in our section of the Indigenous Governance Awards presented biennially by Reconciliation Australia. The Chair of the Awards was Professor Mick Dodson. He and the judges visited the Netley office in August to meet as many of the Aṟa Irititja ‘stakeholders’ as they could. We gathered together many people from SA Museum, as well as Aṉangu and other friends from Adelaide. Linda flew down from Alice Springs and Susan Lowish came across from Melbourne. The judges spent two days talking to everyone and we were subsequently chosen as one of the nine finalists out of 138 applications.
John and Dora travelled with Sally Scales to Sydney to receive the award on November 24. Mick Dodson gave high praise to this year’s finalists. He said the level of competition and quality of projects and organisations was the strongest he had ever seen.
In Sydney holding the certificate .
