BY MARK ABBERTON
CANBERRA — On January 26-27, hundreds of people from Aboriginal and other communities across Australia came together outside Old Parliament House to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. The gathering produced a declaration which contained demands relating to ongoing projects.
Michael Anderson, one of the embassy's founders, explained to Green Left Weekly why the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established: "We had been fighting land rights cases. We were on the tail end of the anti-Vietnam War movement and the large moratorium marches. They always included Aborigines in those marches. When it was announced that troops were going to be pulled out of Vietnam, all these university students were fired up and looking for a new cause.
"At the same time [August 1966], the Gurindji people moved off Wave Hill cattle station. Originally this was about wages, not land rights, but they decided they were going home to their traditional country. It really flourished into a true homeland movement and that stimulated the minds of us down here."
Anderson said that it was the struggles of the Gurindji and Yirrakala people (who launched a land claim in 1971), that made indigenous land rights a big issue. "It just steam-rolled until we had this massive cry for land rights and independence" which the federal government had to deal with whether they liked it or not, he said.
"In 1972, we were anxiously awaiting the Australia Day announcement by Liberal Prime Minister Billy McMahon", which Aboriginal activists had been told would contain a statement about land rights. "We were standing in front of NSW parliament house and a big shock hit us: McMahon announced that the national government would lease land back to Aborigines", Anderson explained. "That was holding a red rag out to a bull and the protest began to snowball.
"But we were in the wrong place, because McMahon was in Canberra. Three of us at the demonstration, plus a fourth fellow I knew, volunteered to go down there, and the rest is history."
Commenting on the importance of the Tent Embassy in indigenous campaigning over years, Anderson told GLW: "Back then we were also fighting high infant mortality rates and for compensation, which meant many things, not just money. It meant education on our terms, it meant freeing the minds of our people, it meant getting proper legal representation to free us from police rule and high imprisonment rates."
Anderson says that the Aboriginal community now understands what the activists of the 1970s were saying: "The money given out for so-called programs is controlled and owned by government, not by us. It's a strange thing to say that money can under develop you, but it can.
"They give to our organisations in name only; the programs are not community initiatives. Aborigines are not fools. We realise that some vindictive politician or political party can change the laws and take everything back. Ultimately, it's going to be a people's movement that's going to change the face of this country."
Asked about his ideas on the future of the Aboriginal movement, Anderson emphasised the need to "get back to the communities, to develop and work with communities and empower people, show they mean something. Of course, we have to bring the funding agencies to account for what they are not doing given the resources and influence they can wield. But, you have to realise their weakness as well: if they rock the boat the government can easily shut them up by stopping the money, which it does all the time."
Anderson believes the new generation of Aboriginal activists has to map the path forward for the movement. "Last year, university students had a conference with the theme 'Re-igniting the fight'. People who have been around still have a lot to offer in terms of experience and guidance. We brought about change, but our kids can advance those changes. We should not tell them what to do; we should just stand there and support them."
From Green Left Weekly, February 6, 2002.
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