By Lara Pullin
CANBERRA — In July 1972, the federal government used the Commonwealth Police to violently dismantle the Aboriginal Tent Embassy settlement of about 20 tents and hundreds of protesters. July 30 marked 25 years since the dismantling of this first embassy, yet the Aboriginal Embassy is still going strong. Green Left Weekly spoke to the current activists resident at the embassy about the past, present and future of what is now a — heritage listed — sacred site.
The establishment of the original embassy came five years after the formal granting of citizenship rights to Aboriginal people following the 1967 referendum.
During the same period, land rights had emerged as the dominant demand through both the Gurindji claim and Wave Hill walk-off in the late '60s, and NT Justice Blackburn's ruling in the Yirrkala decision, which held that Australian law did not recognise traditional title to land.
These events helped to reinforce the demands for recognition that: Australia had been invaded and no treaty had ever been reached; the European concept of terra nullius or empty land was a lie on which colonisation was based; and land rights should include a compensation component — later known as "pay the rent".
Conditions were not improving for Aboriginal peoples, and political equality was still only a formal notion.
To express frustration with the failure of the federal Liberal government, Aboriginal peoples initially planned a series of land rights protests in each capital city for Invasion Day 1972, with a major demonstration to occur in Canberra.
The demonstration on January 26, 1972, opposite Parliament House grew to be the focus — fuelled by the anger generated by Prime Minister William McMahon when he made it clear that his government would grant no land rights.
An umbrella was set up on the lawns of Parliament House by Billie Craigie, Tony Koorie, Michael Anderson and Bertie Williams (now deceased). This was soon replaced with a tent and the protest renamed the Tent Embassy.
One of the original instigators, Kevin Gilbert, has an account of this period in his book Because a White Man'll Never Do It. Kevin's ashes have been scattered at the embassy site, where he spent so much of his energy.
Aboriginal people had an association with the embassy site going back centuries. Scrapers and points were found in 1925 on the sand ridge between Old Parliament House and Molonglo River. An axe head and boomerang were discovered in the lawns area, and other implements uncovered in a nearby pit.
The first Aboriginal protest at the site was in 1927, when two senior Aboriginal men took their claim to the land on which Parliament House had been built to the opening ceremony.
Most importantly, the chosen site was a way to be "in the face" of the government, and attracted an enormous amount of publicity and interest. What followed over the next six months put land rights well and truly on the agenda. Students on universities around the country pledged support and sent money. The Canberra community were supportive — especially at the Australian National University.
The embassy has continued in various forms since. It has been the site of many gatherings, protests and corroborees. The current federal government's racist attacks and cuts to programs and services led to the embassy's re-establishment.
The international interest generated by the 1972 protests continues today, with an average day including visits from many international tourists and journalists. On the last Saturday afternoon I spent there, visitors came from the USA, various Asian countries and Europe, along with people from all over Australia.
Outraged anew by the attacks being made by Howard, Hanson and friends, Isabell Coe has left her job and family in Sydney and come to live and work full time at the embassy.
"Back then in '72, we were inspired by what was happening with the Black Panther Party, Malcolm X in the USA, Angela Davis, the Soledad Brothers", explains Isabell.
"We had the Aboriginal Legal Service and Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, but there were many other efforts being frustrated by government. We took our protest to Canberra. The embassy was about sovereignty — it still is about sovereignty.
"We'll keep on resisting until we get justice. Not reconciliation. That's based on racism — it started with Keating and his native title program — crumbs for our people. But while native title is good for those who can show the traditional claim, 90% of our people still haven't got anything out of this process.
"They wouldn't dare to offer Holocaust survivors a reconciliation process. How dare they do that to us, especially when the old Aboriginal Protection Board is still alive and well in the form of DOCS [Department of Community Services]?"
Some of the issues which have been taken to the embassy people for discussion and activism include the stolen children and the sexual abuse of these children. Robert and Clifford Guest, brothers who were stolen and subsequently abused, have exhausted all other bureaucratic and legal alternatives away from Canberra, so they've brought their issues here to raise awareness and seek some resolution.
On August 1, those involved in the stolen children's High Court case were at the embassy to discuss the implications of the previous day's unfavourable decision and share the load.
Other issues include deaths in custody and racist laws or practices, living conditions and health, housing and education. ATSIC is not enough — it's not capable of democratically addressing these things.
The various state issues taken to the embassy include woodchipping in Tasmania, sand mining at Stradbroke Island, Kumarangk/Hindmarsh Island, the Wiradjuri land claim in NSW and the Free Denis Walker campaign.
But the overriding issue, at the base of all of these, is sovereignty.
Isabell and the other residents are resolved to stay put this time. The embassy site now consists of two portable buildings, a fireplace and communal area and assorted tents. Large painted placards remind visitors of the embassy's purpose: "Sovereignty never ceded" and "White Australia has a Black History", along with the sign reminding visitors that this is a "Sacred Site, dry camp".
A brew is always ready for friends who visit, along with a few good yarns and some intense discussion about Hanson and the hatred which is winding the clock back.
Not all visitors are friendly. In the past eight months they've been through about 20 Aboriginal flags because people come and steal the flags. The flags of Bougainville, East Timor and Tibet are now on display inside the embassy, out of concern that they'll be stolen also.
Roy, from Gu-Gu Yalangi country, (inland from Cairns) tells of his concerns about the increase in KKK activity in Australia since the rise of the One Nation party.
There is general agreement around the camp fire on this, and the futility of banning Hanson or redrawing electoral boundaries. The best method, generally agreed, is to tackle her politics head on, not to make a martyr out of her: "Plenty more where she came from".
Ben Blakeny calls around to say hello and drop off some boomerangs he's made. "We want to go into the new century united, not divided — we've been divided for most of the past 209 years. We've got to move on from that. That's why this embassy is so important."
Ben, a Malayan conflict veteran, spends his time now going around to schools teaching the art of boomerang throwing. He makes the boomerangs himself, but invites the children to create their own designs.
"When I went to school, the teachers got up and told our class about how the blacks were out killing the settlers. They weren't settlers; they invaded, and our people were defending themselves."
Ben was drafted in 1955 and was devastated when, after two years' active service as an ammo driver in Malaya, he couldn't even drink in a pub back home with his mates when he returned.
On the day that he was to learn the federal government's decision about his visa, US Black Panther Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin was at the embassy expressing his solidarity.
The embassy people are incensed at the way he was treated, but not surprised. "We support Lorenzo and what he was saying on his tour, and condemn what happened to him. This is the very same government that continues to incarcerate Aboriginal Australians — they locked up two little kids over Christmas for their reaction to Pauline Hanson.
"Now they go and throw Lorenzo in jail — they roughed him up a bit, shoved him around — he's an international anti-racist campaigner. That's what they're scared of. But we're here, and we're here to stay, and we'll also be there whenever Hanson or her type is around."
In Isabell's room, the words on a banner proudly proclaim:
"We will not forget
We will not go away
We will not be silent
We will not die
We will fight
and we will survive
Aboriginal Sovereignty
Always was and always will be."