The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a protest camp located in Canberra, Australia outside parliament house. Established in 1972, it has survived for nearly 50 years and continues to advocate for Aboriginal Australians.
History
In response to the refusal to recognise aboriginal land rights, four Aboriginal men (Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Tony Coorey and Bertie Williams) arrived in Canberra from Sydney on the 26th of January, 1972 and planted a beach umbrella on the lawn in front of Parliament House. Soon several tents emerged and Aboriginal people and non-indigenous supporters came from all parts of Australia to join the protest. In Feburary the embassy presented a list of demands to the Australian government:
- Control of the Northern Territory as a State within the Commonwealth of Australia; the parliament in the Northern Territory to be predominantly Aboriginal with title and mining rights to all land within the Territory.
- Legal title and mining rights to all other presently existing reserve lands and settlements throughout Australia.
- The preservation of all sacred sites throughout Australia.
- Legal title and mining rights to areas in and around all Australian capital cities.
- Compensation money for lands not returnable to take the form of a down-payment of six billion dollars and an annual percentage of the gross national income.
The police deemed the embassy a squat and evicted it, but three days later, it was retaken and the police could not retake it. It was destroyed in a storm in 1974 but quickly rebuilt, and was moved to a house in the nearby suburb of Red Hill, but abandoned in 1977. It was only in 1992 that it was re-established, it has since been subject to many arson attacks from unknown figures (likely white supremacists or undercover police).