Australia’s “big things” (the giant banana in Coffs Harbour NSW or The Big Lobster in Kingston SE, SA are tourism boosters. But the newest one has a different purpose. The Cross on Memory Mountain, is big, 20m high, and will become a tourist attraction, but it aims to display the Christian faith of the local indigenous community at Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff), 227 km west of Alice Springs.
“This is 100% an Indigenous-led vision,” Pam Duncan of the Walk a While Foundation tells The Other Cheek. Pam and her husband Ken, a well-known landscape photographer, caught the vision early.
“The Indigenous communities of the western desert region in the Northern Territory have had a vision for a Cross on Memory Mountain for many years.
“When we joined them for their Easter celebration in 2009, they asked us to help them build the Cross. They wanted the Cross raised on a mountain that’s very significant to them, to declare the Name of Jesus over their land. They call this “The Forgiveness Cross”.
The Cross is being constructed of Cor-ten steel, also known as “weathering steel” which takes on a stable rust-like appearance after several years. This was chosen so the Cross will look at home in the landscape.
Duncan recounts tears of joy among the locals when the cross was completed in September. The track up the mountain and lighting still need to be completed. The project needs to add toilets before it can welcome tourists.
“ We hope that will all be done before the end of this year, but that will be dependent on when the wet season starts,” says Duncan. “Before we can open the tourism precinct and welcome visitors, we need to build an information shelter and provide toilets and basic amenities. In time, the precinct will offer camping and glamping facilities.”
Walk a While Foundation has now become the largest employer of Indigenous people in Haasts Bluff. Once the Memory Mountain Tourism precinct is operational and begins to draw tourists, more jobs will be added for the Ikuntji community.
To date, the project has cost almost $1.8m – which has all come through donations – and Walk a While Foundationhttps://walkawhile.org.au/ is actively seeking donations to complete the project as quickly as possible
The Ikuntji community at Haasts Bluff, once a Lutheran mission, is also a hub for the talented artists of the Western Desert Art Movement.