Inspiration for May 26 Tent-in at Queens Park

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra

Another example of the struggle by Aboriginals to assert their rights over place can be seen in the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra. Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Bertie Williams and Tony Corey first erected the 'Aboriginal Embassy' in 26 January 1972. The establishment of the Embassy was in direct response to the statement on the previous day by Prime Minister Billy McMahon that had rejected any notion of freehold land rights. After the site had been occupied for six months Prime Minister McMahon passed an ordinance on 20 July 1972 that outlawed camping on unleased Commonwealth land in the Australian Capital Territory. The police attempts to remove the members of the Tent Embassy provoked a series of confrontations over the ensuing days, until the Embassy was finally dismantled on 30 July. The extent to which the Embassy site became identified with the Aboriginal struggle was illustrated by an event recalled by Gary Foley, a long-time Aboriginal activist who joined the Embassy from the earliest days. Foley (Tuohy 1995) remembered that 'some wit put up a letter box, and within a couple of days the then PMG started delivering mail to the Aboriginal Embassy -- it came in from all over the world, it captured the public's imagination'. The protest at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy became a potent symbol for the struggle of Indigenous Australians and the extent to which that struggle re-inscribed the site on the lawns of the old Parliament House was evidenced by the fact that the Australian postal service commenced delivery of mail there. The site was not just claimed by [*85] Indigenous Australians, perhaps even more importantly, it was recognised by non-Indigenous Australians as being a significant place for the Indigenous struggle.

Although the tent site was dismantled in 1972 it remained a potent symbol of the struggle for rights of Indigenous Australians. In 1992 the Tent Embassy was re-established on the same site, to commemorate the fact that there had been little in the way of positive recognition of Indigenous rights in the ensuing 20 years (Easterbrook 1992). In 1995 the Australian Heritage Commission recognised the place as being of special cultural significance and added it to the Register of the National Estate. As a consequence of being placed on the Register the Federal Government is constrained under section 30 of the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975 from taking any action that would adversely affect the place. The provisions of the Heritage Commission Act do not, however, apply to either State or local governments. A fire at the site of the Tent Embassy in June 2003 provided the Federal Heritage Minister with the opportunity to authorise the removal of the damaged shipping container that had served as an information booth. The Tent Embassy members sought to prevent the removal of the structure by using the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, however it was deemed that the Heritage legislation did not have any application to the Tent Embassy site. In August 2003 it was announced that the Federal government would seek to close down the Embassy by the end of the month (Fickling 2003). The decision to close down the Tent Embassy was criticised by one of its founding members, Michael Anderson, who rejected that the existing buildings should be replaced by some sort of memorial in recognition of the important history of the site. Anderson emphatically rejected this proposal, stating 'They're trying to sanitise it for the government ... You put memorials up to the dead and we're not dead. We're a living people' (Fickling 2003).

Law/Text/Culture

2003

7 LTC 71


LAW, SPACE AND PLACE: Mapping Australian Postcolonial Landscapes: From Resistance to Reconciliation?

NAME: Mark Harris