NT government changes its mind in hours over a state funeral for Dr MK Turner OAM

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers please note that this article contains the name and an image (used with the permission of their family) of an Indigenous person who has died.

The Northern Territory government has reversed its original decision not to offer a state funeral to Dr MK Turner OAM. But that decision was overturned within three and a half hours — and the government saw fit to confirm so with Crikey first and Turner’s family second. Turner died on July 5.

At 8.45am on Monday, Turner’s family was notified that NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles would offer money but no state funeral for the late Arrernte Elder, professor, artist, author, language speaker, teacher and founding director and cultural authority at First Nation’s education organisation Children’s Ground.

Then, at 12.23pm, a spokesperson for Fyles confirmed to Crikey that a state funeral had now been offered and they were waiting for the family to accept. Children’s Ground CEO Jane Vadiveloo and the family received a phone call from Fyles’ chief of staff at 12.54pm.

Vadiveloo, who is helping the family liaise with government officials, told Crikey that although she had received a phone call from NT Attorney-General Chansey Paech at 12.20pm that “MK will have a state funeral”, she had not heard anything from Fyles’ office.

In the short time between the government’s initial announcement and subsequent U-turn, Vadiveloo stood alongside 10 members of Turner’s family at a press conference in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Taking turns, each voiced their hurt and “insult” over the government’s decision to deny Turner the honour of a state funeral.

“The government is spending so much money on trying to reconcile everybody and this is what they do to the person who’s done it best. It’s a bloody insult really,” Turner’s niece Sylvia Neal said. “I am so angry that they would do that. How dare they.”

Turner’s family described to Crikey who she was, what she did, and the innumerable people she had touched with “her choice and her being”.

“She gave her voice for everyone. Not only her own people, Indigenous people, but also non-Indigenous people,” Turner’s daughter Amelia Kngwarraye Turner said.

Another daughter, Veronica Kngwarraye Turner, detailed the long list of international names who had had the honour of meeting her mother: “She’s met the queen, the pope, Graça Machel, Nelson Mandela’s second wife, everyone. She has an Order of Australia. She has a [doctorate]. It makes no sense that they don’t give mum a state funeral.”

In a statement released by Children’s Ground on Monday afternoon, the family said the process demonstrated the lack of understanding and “rightful recognition” given to cultural Elders and leaders of Indigenous communities: “This decision should have been led by our political representatives to avoid the insult and pain to the Turner and Neal family during a time of deep sadness and grief.”