Although the NT Government has had difficulty achieving Aboriginal employment proportionate to the NT’s 30% Aboriginal population since self-government, there are Aboriginal senior officials in the NT Government and they have been invited to contribute to policies and programs affecting Aboriginal people. The presentation will show the ambiguities inherent in this invitation. Drawing on interviews conducted with 76 Aboriginal senior officials as part of PhD fieldwork during 2007, the presentation will then consider the extent to which, and the styles in which, Aboriginal senior officials in the desert and elsewhere have considered themselves to be representing others.