Bert Williams had to report in to the police in Melbourne two days after the erection; he died three months later [5]. Other important people connected with the embassy are Gary Foley, a very intellectual and multi-faceted man, Chicka Dixon, a tribal elder responsible for the political leadership, Pearl Gibbs and Paul Coe [5].
The Tent Embassy was only ever intended to be a momentary act of protest. It shattered claims that the local Aboriginal power movement was violent and racist, as it mounted an effective, peaceful protest [1]. According to the last remaining founder and the first ambassador of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Michael Anderson, the term 'tent embassy' was coined by the media and came into use only in , 20 years after it was set up.
Over the next days and weeks more and more Aboriginal people made their way to Canberra to join the activists at the Tent Embassy. A loophole in Australian Capital Territory laws allowed camping on the laws of Parliament House as long as there were less than 12 tents, and the protesters took this to their advantage.
Over the weekend of the February , members of the tent embassy drew up a petition to present to the government. In it they asked for full control of the Northern Territory including all titles to minerals, ownership of all other reserves and settlements in Australia including mineral and mining rights, preservation of all sacred lands in Australia, legal title and mining rights to areas of 'certain cities', and compensation payments for all other land taken from them.
But the government did not sleep. Hastily it drafted a new law banning camping on unleased Commonwealth land within Canberra. On July 20, just hours after the new law came into effect, police moved in violently and forcibly removed tents and arrested Aboriginal people. Within days the Aboriginal embassy population swelled to several hundred protesters who re-erected tents only to clash with police again.
It was the most violent demonstration I have ever been in. The following amateur video is part of the film Ningla A-na. It captures the second raid by police on 23rd July Note the number of police visible in the first few moments of the video. By 30 July more than 2, Aboriginal people and their supporters had gathered at the embassy [2]. On 13 September , the ACT Supreme Court declared the removal of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy illegal because the law that underpinned it had not been notified 'in the prescribed manner' [2].
The embassy was re-established and remained on the lawns of Parliament House until 13 February , when the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Minister for Capital Territory negotiated its removal. On the embassy's 20th birthday, 26 January , it was set up again. By then the Parliament House was no longer used by the government which had moved to Capital Hill.
A documentary by Francis Little about the establishment of the Tent Embassy. Aboriginal Tent Embassy, 26 January The Aboriginal Tent Embassy has been around for over 40 years now and still continues to be a hub and symbol for the fight for our rights and for the sovereignty of our people to be recognised.
Many protests and marches begin and end there and it has become an icon for Mob across Australia. Visitors and Community members alike are encouraged to visit the Embassy to place gum leaves on the ceremonial fire as well as to sit and talk to those at the Embassy about its long history and the about all the Aboriginal political movements in its time.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, film, audio recordings or printed material. To listen to our Acknowledgement of Country, click here. It was originally a simple beach umbrella and tent that became a hub and meeting place for Aboriginal land rights and sovereignty activism. The Embassy took many forms over the years and continues to be a powerful symbol for Aboriginal rights to this day.
A land rights issue In the lead up to the formation of the Tent Embassy, there were battles over Aboriginal land rights occurring all over the Country, with many different Mobs standing up to protect Country.
The land was taken from us by force Since that time, some directions and emphases in First Nations and decolonial politics in Australia have shifted. The advent and ambivalence of Native Title, and the work done by First Nations communities to reconnect members of the Stolen Generations with family and country have brought focus to languages, the many different Indigenous countries, and specific cultural identity.
The symbolism of the embassy has grown since its institution and it has taken on new meanings, but it has always provoked and insisted on genuine and respectful engagement with Aboriginal systems of laws and governance.
In February — shortly after their arrival — the ambassadors presented the McMahon government with a list of diplomatic demands.
In the ensuing months, the embassy grew — from one umbrella to a cluster of a dozen tents — and attracted a dynamic and articulate group of diplomatic staff, activists and supporters. The Federal Opposition Leader, Gough Whitlam visited to meet with the diplomatic staff, and subsequently wrote and spoke in measured support of their landrights campaign.
The Tent Embassy became a hub for activist conversations and political meetings. Its members included those who acted at the centre of First Nations political and community movements through the second half of the twentieth century; many met and practiced new ideas and modes of political engagement at the embassy. For the McMahon government, the embassy was an embarrassment on an international scale. All such offers were refused. Japan's former princess leaves for US with commoner husband.
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