Staking a claim for land justice

Supporters of the Kaurna people’s claim to land on the site of the demolished CSR sugar refinery in Port Adelaide – currently earmarked for redevelopment into luxury apartments – entered the Edgewater project worksite on Saturday to stake out an area of land for an alternative vision. The Lartelare Glanville Land Action Group organised the protest to support the call of descendants of the original inhabitants of the site in the riverside suburb of Glanville for an Aboriginal cultural and aged care facility on the northern end of the planned redevelopment.

Kaurna and Ngarrendjeri Elder Veronica Brodie spoke to the gathering of her determination to secure the site for her people. She is the great granddaughter of Lartelare (Rebecca Spender) and granddaughter of Laura Spender, who were both born in traditional wurley dwellings on the site. Democrats MLC Kate Reynolds and Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor Fiona Barr also spoke at the protest.

Participants then took stakes, flags and ribbons in the Aboriginal colours to mark out the area needed for the community facilities. The first of the stakes were driven in at the site’s northern boundary by Veronica Brodie’s daughters, Margaret and Kathy. The group plans to step up its protests and continues to reject the Land Management Corporation’s proposal for token commemoration of the area’s Kaurna heritage with interpretive signs or a monument within a narrow park between the rows of expensive apartments.