In 1979, after almost 90 years of continuous occupation, the Lutheran mission handed back its government lease to the Western Arrernte. Today, a population of over 900 is distributed between Alice Springs, Ntaria and 40 outstations on the old lease.^[50] Roughly half the outstations are within a 25 kilometre radius of Ntaria and, as one Western Arrernte man observed, the outstation movement was more a 'decentralisation' from Ntaria than a 'land rights' movement as such. Nonetheless, there was a significant element of cultural revitalisation in the outstation movement. Rites that had not been performed for many years close to the mission were performed again and with public acknowledgment. The movement responded to initial steps towards self government at Ntaria (then Hermannsburg) (see Sommerlad 1973). The attempt to revitalise rites was part of a larger concern with how to re-articulate Aboriginal authority in the wake of the mission order.

With growing Federal support in the 1970s, the movement quickened. In 1974 there were nine outstations, then 24 by 1976, and 33 by 1983 when the Tjuwanpa Outstation Resource Centre was established as an Aboriginal corporation. The resource centre was constructed across the Finke River from Ntaria and incorporated under the Federal Incorporations Act 1983. This was also the year in which Hermannsburg mission governance was replaced by an autonomous Ntaria council. The council is incorporated under Northern Territory legislation and receives municipal support as a community government. There were five more outstations by 1988, bringing the number to 38 in total. In that year Tjuwanpa and Ntaria both adopted CDEPs.

The original manager and staff of Tjuwanpa were lay Lutherans, the manager staying on at Tjuwanpa for more than a decade after the mission administration withdrew. In an Arrernte sense, he was a 'worker' for the man who many saw as the senior custodian for the country on which Hermannsburg was built. The new Ntaria Council chairman contested this custodian's position though the chairman had neither the support of senior Arrernte nor of their Lutheran brokers. He had gained his council position by virtue of his administrative skills and not through traditional status. The contest has now continued even into the next generation. As a consequence, Tjuwanpa and Ntaria have developed in tandem but with tensions and sometimes open conflict between them.

At the outset the Ntaria CDEP had 140 participants, but even by 1990 the number had declined to around 40 as people progressively transferred from Ntaria to the outstation scheme. Today the Ntaria project still numbers about 40 while the Tjuwanpa-based scheme has more than 300 participants. Ntaria's is a 'community based' project while Tjuwanpa, with its far-flung clientele, is an organisation with both centralised and decentralised aspects.

Tjuwanpa is the hub of the outstation scheme. The centre includes administrative offices, a garage, service station and parts shop, and a steelworks shop. It has a large meeting room, a vehicle compound, and two horticultural sites, the product of terminated projects. A Federal Community Housing and Infrastructure Program (CHIP) grant supports the manager—accountant and a small number of clerical staff. CDEP support pays or contributes funds to the CDEP coordinator, two field officers, the building team staff and road building staff, as well as a senior vehicle mechanic and a land care officer. Further positions in building, mechanics and land care are paid from other sources including profits. A full-time grader operator is retained by the organisation. He bids successfully for regional contract work (see Nicholas, Ch. 25, this volume). In the past, the organisation also employed a full-time welder for the steel shop. The shop was set up a decade ago to make various furniture and fittings for outstation houses. All major housing construction was contracted out from the mid 1990s. Since that time, the Tjuwanpa steel shop has been less active though it still maintains a steady production of fence posts, bed frames, and the like.

Apart from municipal and CDEP management as such, the largest centralised project at Tjuwanpa is the building maintenance team, a DEWRSB Structured Training and Employment Project (STEP) aimed at self sufficiency. A similar STEP project is planned in contract road building and maintenance (see Nicholas, Ch. 25, this volume). The newly established women's centre is developing a meals project for the old and a sewing project to provide outstation curtains. Modest as this latter activity seems, it involves recycling house rental and a subsidy from the Infrastructure and Housing Authority of the Northern Territory to create a market for women's work that moves away from the notion of craft and recreation towards commercial activity.

Tjuwanpa retains about 30 full-time staff of whom eight currently are non-Indigenous. This includes the manager–accountant, two CDEP field officers, the payroll officer, and two mechanics. The CDEP co-ordinator and a number of 'team leaders' in the service station, steel shop, and roads and building maintenance are Aboriginal, including the grader operator. In addition, the Tjuwanpa management committee is entirely Aboriginal. This committee has 20 members who represent the various outstation administrative groupings. The committee oversees both the municipal and CDEP functions of Tjuwanpa. Outstation heads who act as supervisors for their respective outstation projects receive a loading as part of their fortnightly CDEP pay. They propose or delete CDEP participants for their outstations and sign the weekly work sheets.

Outstation activities include mustering and yard maintenance which involves extensive fencing. In the past few years small herds of cattle have been purchased by two outstations. There is more activity in feral animal mustering of brumbies, cattle, and camels. About four outstations are involved in this activity which is influenced by the price of beasts in relation to transport costs. The nearest abattoir at Bond Springs north of Alice Springs is not killing at present, and stock must be trucked across the continent. Horse meat is used for pet food and camel meat holds prospects for an export industry. Two outstations currently maintain commercial art or craft activities. Ironically, in 1992 Tjuwanpa failed to take up the option of managing the Hermannsburg Potters. Although it was feared that the group would be a burden, it is now a successful and internationally acclaimed enterprise. Three outstations in the system house small regional schools and teaching aides are recruited for these from their immediate vicinities. One outstation is involved in building maintenance under the leadership of the outstation head who is a skilled tradesman. One outstation maintains an alcohol rehabilitation program and a few outstations from time to time have been involved in gardening projects, generally not sustained. Most of these activities are intermittent and involve a small minority of those registered for CDEP. The majority of participants are listed for activities concerned with outstation maintenance, land care, or care of the old and young. Much though not all activity on many outstations is notional.

CDEP is the principal source of income for Western Arrernte people. The 1996 Census shows CDEP accounting for 78 per cent of the outstation labour force. Of this labour force, 16 per cent was unemployed, leaving only 6 per cent in other forms of employment (ABS 1998: 112). Most Western Arrernte people receive some royalty payments for Palm Valley gas reserves and/or a natural gas pipeline from Mereenie that travels across Western Arrernte land. On balance, however, the Western Arrernte are not a royalty-rich group. Income from mining has not been sufficient to prompt Arrernte-wide incorporations. The income from Tjuwanpa's CDEP in the financial year 1998–99 was around $3.8 million. In relation to UB, CDEP brings to Tjuwanpa both additional capital and operations support. It also brings the ability to manage income support on a family basis, important in funding outstation services. Managed saving is extensive at Tjuwanpa and is now being turned to fund maintenance and improvement projects that also create employment.

Within PRC, Tjuwanpa's is the largest of 12 CDEPs (PRC 1999: 15). The council's annual report for 1998–99 listed 335 participants for Tjuwanpa with the next largest being Yuendemu (135) and then Willowra (78). Overall Tjuwanpa's list accounts for about a third of the region's participants, and just over 27 per cent of regional CDEP budget allocations (PRC 1999: 27). In the Papunya Region, CDEPs have almost doubled in the last six years and PRC has a waiting list of communities (PRC 1999: 15). Regional conditions and its relative size place pressure on Tjuwanpa both to comply with ATSIC rules and also to develop profit-making concerns. The way forward is difficult, however.