In October, when Ampilatwatja walk-off spokesperson Richard Downs toured the eastern states with Yuendumu elder Uncle Harry Nelson, they explained how their protest camp would demonstrate that Aboriginal people running their own affairs could build the type of sustainable community that the Northern Territory intervention, like past assimilationist and paternalistic policies, had failed to deliver.
They also made a very specific appeal for solidarity: for trade unionists with the appropriate skills and qualifications to travel to Ampilatwatja to help build a house.
This is something the government had failed to do, despite housing being promised to NT Aboriginal communities in exchange for the rights that the intervention took from them.
The proposal was for the house to be completed by the weekend of February 13-14, to mark the second anniversary of PM Kevin Rudd's apology to the Indigenous "stolen generations".
The well-developed plans for the trade union brigade to Ampilatwatja were also a topic of discussion at the Socialist Alliance national conference in January, at which Downs was a guest speaker.
One of those who took part in the brigade was Tim Gooden, SA member and secretary of the Geelong and Region Trades and Labour Council.
Gooden spoke to Green Left Weekly after returning from Ampilatwatja.
"When we did the tour of the township we could see why people need to protest", he said. "Not only are there no services like garbage collection, basic things like fire hydrants have no taps or hoses. If a building catches fire, the only thing you can do is walk away and let it burn. No wonder the elders decided to walk off."
Gooden described the "appalling consultation process" in which people told government representatives that "they didn't want the intervention. They wanted things like garbage collection, basic services like that, and to be allowed to run their own show."
The government was not listening. It responded with so-called "Tier 1 consultations".
"These are one-on-one consultations where they [the government] pick one person to talk to", Gooden explained. "They bring you into a room and give you a choice. Either you accept the intervention and welfare quarantining, and get infrastructure and service provision tied to giving up land rights and community control, or would you rather no money at all?"
When the elders decided to walk off, they were reviving a tactic that was often used by remote area Aboriginal communities in the 20th century. "Banjo [Morton] was involved in walk-off actions in the 1940s. He said to me: 'this is round two'.
"As well as sending a message to the government, the walk-off sends a message to other communities: you do not have to be under the control of governments. You can walk off and set up a place with Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs", Gooden said.
Once the construction of the protest house began, "all the community weighed in. A lot of young blokes came in with the concrete pour.
"There was a sense of community and achievement, a sense that the community can, with solidarity, achieve what the government can't … the community had beaten [Indigenous affairs minister Jenny] Macklin.
"From a socialist point of view, the brigade was a way of showing first hand that people can work together and that services can be delivered faster when the profit motive is removed."
On February 8, less than a week before the protest house was completed, Macklin announced that the first two houses built with the intervention's $672 million housing budget had been completed. They were built in Wadeye, one of the small number of communities earmarked for development as a "hub town".
The government plans to concentrate the NT Aboriginal population in these "hub towns" while 73 smaller communities — including Ampilatwatja — will be starved of funds for development.
Gooden pointed out that the "hub towns" are all near existing or proposed mining operations. "They will provide infrastructure and cheap labour for the mines. This is why the government is focusing on these 'hub towns' and not what the community wants.
"They want to stay on their own land and maintain their culture. The government wants unfettered access to land for the mining corporations. The government prioritises business interests over preserving culture and providing services.
"The protest house is a brilliant showcase of solidarity, of non-profit making cooperation. It also brilliantly exposes government lies."