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“Aboriginal people have been dealing with technologies for thousands of years. These newer technologies that we’re linking into shows that we’re bridging that gap and that Aboriginal people have always been in that technology space. It’s been crucial to their survival.”
That’s what Arrernte man Peter Renehan, CEO at the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT), said in this beautiful video that shows the ground station build in Mparntwe (Alice Springs).
This multimillion-dollar facility is the first Aboriginal-owned commercial satellite ground station in Australia – tracking earth from space via a unique partnership with global satellite communications company Viasat Inc.
Built, project-managed and owned by Indigenous companies – CfAT and its subsidiaries Ekistica Ltd and CfAT Satellite Enterprises, as well as Ingerreke Commercial who laid the concrete foundations in December 2019.
Peter goes on to say, “We can develop programs that can help and assist land management and ranger programs, carbon farming, monitoring of fires and all sorts of things; so it’s pretty significant and important...If you think of the breadth right across Australia, whether it’s our land or our seas, to be able to provide that access to that information and data from Alice Springs is a feather in our cap. I think Central Australia and Alice Springs should be really proud of this sort of development.”
This video captures the technology in action. IBA worked with local Indigenous videographers Since1788 Productions to create the time lapse of the project which ends with the night sky.
