APY Arts Centre Collective accused of using fraudulent letter to seek federal grant

The APY Arts Centre Collective has been accused of submitting a fraudulent letter to a government department that granted it $335,000 over four years.

APYACC general manager Skye O’Meara, right, with artist, Rhoda Tjitayi, left, and Sally Scales. Picture: Dean Martin

The APY Arts Centre Collective has been accused of submitting a fraudulent letter to a federal ­government department that has granted it $335,000 over the past four years.

In a long-running investigation into allegations that white studio staff had painted on the art works of Indigenous artists, The Australian has also uncovered a disturbing pattern of false documents being sent without the knowledge of those who supposedly wrote them, including from Indigenous people who are not literate in English.

The Australian can reveal that a 2020 funding submission to the Indigenous Visual Arts ­Industry Support (IVAIS) program, overseen by the federal arts minister, included an undated letter that purports to be from the former manager of the Ernabella Arts Centre, Mel ­George, “writing to express our commitment and support for the APYACC’s submission under the IVAIS program”.

It went on to praise the work of the collective and its “excellent track record and innate ability to maintain focus while developing and driving a grassroots focused program in a highly professional manner”.

Ms George, who was the manager until February 2021, never wrote that 2020 letter. At the time it was submitted, the board of the Ernabella Arts Centre had severed all ties with the APYACC due to its concerns about the collective’s management and what it believed were unethical practices.

“Despite not being a member of the APYACC since February 2020, the Ernabella Arts name, and the signature of the former manager, as well as the signatures of artists, have been used without our knowledge or consent on funding applications and other documents,” the chair of the Ernabella board, Anne Thompson, and the two previous chairs, Alison Milyika Carroll and Makinti Minutjukur, said in a statement.

“These frauds have been ­reported to the South Australian Police.”

A staff member from IVAIS contacted the Ernabella Arts Centre in 2020, suspicious that a letter of support it had received in a funding application from the APYACC, supposedly from the Ernabella Arts Centre, was ­undated.

“We are currently conducting due diligence in relation to the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) program,” said the July 2020 email from IVAIS to Ernabella, obtained by The Australian.

“I am emailing seeking your advice regarding an undated letter of support from Ernabella Arts that was attached to an ­application by the APY Art Centre Collective to the IVAIS program in February 2020.”

Ms George wrote back: “This letter is 100% fraudulent. It was not written by me, or signed by me. This is highly troubling and very concerning.”

The Australian contacted APYACC general manager Skye O’Meara on Friday asking how this undated letter could have ended up in the APYACC’s funding proposal to IVAIS.

“This is total nonsense, it was an admin error,” Ms O’Meara said. “There was no letter of support from Mel George or Ernabella Arts that accompanied our successful funding submission to IVAIS in 2020.”

Rhoda Tjitayi. Picture Dean Martin

Paul Andy. Picture: APY Art Centre Collective

The only explanation Ms ­George has for how her signature could have appeared at the bottom of the letter is that in a previous year she may have written a letter of support (although no letter could be found in the art centre’s records). It would appear that the date was whited-out and the letter resubmitted, even though Ernabella Arts did not support the application.

The Australian understands that staff at IVAIS were concerned about the letter, but that it didn’t have the necessary authority to investigate it.

A source says that IVAIS had concerns that there appeared to be a pattern “that letters of support that were maybe signed at one time, kept being reused and re-dated … that’s why it was ­referred to ORIC (Office of Registrar of Indigenous Corporations).”

An official statement from IVAIS said: “The Department is aware of an Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) examination of the APYACC in 2021.”

ORIC said in a statement that: “The Registrar’s policy is to not comment on whether or not we intend to or are conducting an investigation unless it’s in the context of reporting an outcome from an investigation. Similarly we do not comment on complaints.”

The board of Ernabella has written to ORIC on several occasions to follow up on complaints it has made about this issue and other issues. It has not had a reply. It has also not heard back from the South Australian police.

And as Ms O’Meara’s email said it was successful in getting funding from the federal government – $335,000 since 2019.

The Australian has uncovered other documents of dubious ­authenticity distributed by the collective, which includes letters supposedly written by some of its artists.

The Australian has received a letter from artist Rhoda Tjitayi, recanting everything she supposedly told us in an interview. The Australian never interviewed her.

The paper also received a letter from artist Paul Andy, recanting serious allegations that Ms O’Meara interfered in the creation of Indigenous art. Mr Andy said he never wrote that letter and disputes its contents.

The investigation by this newspaper also uncovered the APYACC Covid plan, which was sent to the South Australian government. It stated that a proposal to bus 50 elderly APY artists down to Adelaide during Covid, when the APY Lands had no cases of the virus, had the “100 percent support and endorsement of the seven APY Art Centres – directors, staff and artists.” It didn’t.