Over the last couple of days I have noticed that the temporary style accommodation and vehicles around the Tent Embassy opposite Old Parliament House have grown considerably. I guess there may have been increased numbers in town for Australia Day, but that is now over one week ago. Does anybody know if there is another reason why the Embassy appears to have expanded so rapidly?
Personally, I don’t have an issue with the apparent expansion or existence of the Tent Embassy – although I know it is a political hot potato, regardless of which side of the fence one chooses to sit – I am just wondering if there is an explanation for this recent growth in numbers?
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Zombie thread fail
Jim Jones said :
Yes, it’s the same over-educated communist-loving fanbase. *I* used my brain.
HenryBG said :
English literature fail.
HenryBG said :
Wow – you think George Orwell was satirising people who organise bridge walks?
I think you might need to read that book again, this time using your brain.
bearlikesbeer said :
Not sure, but just because you have a quote, doesn’t mean you have the truth.
George Orwell also wrote a book about it. “Some animals are more equal than others” – co-incidentally he was satirising the same segment of society which is now organising Bridge Walks and other similarly divisive events.
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
– Thomas Jefferson
Is Jefferson saying people should treat the disadvantaged better than others in order to ensure equal status in society, or people should treat the advantaged worse than others in order to ensure equal status in society?
Thumper said :
So what are the issues?
Do we all get equal pay for equal work? Do we all have equal access to democratic representation? Do we all have equal access to socialised medicine, education and welfare?
What is it precisely that the squalor at the tent embassy is supposed to be highlighting, if it isn’t simply the fact that in any society there is a rump of idle whingers trying to blame everybody but themselves for the lack of social status that ensues from their lack of industry?
Dilandach said :
they’re saints, I tell you! SAINTS.
Kerehona said :
I’m sure the poster will be relieved after 2 years that you’ve posted that statement. Creeping around for tent embassy threads to be outraged about are we?
Die Lefty Scum said :
What were you expecting?
Sorry Thumper I got my rivers mixed up. The story I was told was near Murrumbateman, along the Murrumbidgee river. I had the place in my mind just the wrong name.
Duke…”It’s not a free country. Go start your own commune in Commonwealth Park and see how long the authorities let you stay.”
The South African Embassy had a camp outside as did the French Embassy. Both where tolerated by the authorities.
It may be part of our culture. Setting up a camp as protest.
Yes, so you have quoted another source about another issue. I’ve read it before.
Nothing about poisoning people along the Molonglo river.
Thumper… Finding a real source sounds like a challenge. I’m sure I’ve read a description by early gold prospectors.
I did find this.
At the opening of the Tharwa Bridge in 1895, the guest of honour, Ngunnawal woman Nellie Hamilton, said:
I no tink much of your law. You come here and take my land, kill my possum, my kangaroo; leave me starve. Only gib me rotten blanket. Me take calf or sheep, you been shoot me, or put me in jail. You bring your bad sickness ‘mong us.
Source: Canberra, the Guide, edited by Ken Taylor and David Headon, page 9
I know that along the Molonglo river Aboriginals were poisoned and run off the land by the ancestors of families who still own land in the area. You can call me a liar if you like. It was a local farmer that told me.
I’d like to see a real source for that claim. And a date would help as well. After all, you did say ‘History is important when we still fail to get the facts right’.
An old farmers third hand recollections are not really a primary source.
When people stop being emotive about the issue then there may be a chance to move on and address the issues, until then nothing is going to change because it will be a case of damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
“My point is that rehashing or rewriting history has not and will not achieve anything.”
Denial of Black History. As you have indulged in yourself. Can you really know what happened in your own town. Did you own the shop. Are you an aboriginal living on the outside of town. Why doubt her story.
History is important when we still fail to get the facts right. When people still talk about a “war”. When central aboriginal communities are referred to as violent rapists. This is not history if it is happening today. Put down, after put down.
The tent embassy gives a focus to the unofficial struggle. The one that is not funded by the Government. A place for the people.
Well I don’t agree with you Sepi, but I see that your heart is in the right place. No, I truly don’t have the answer, and I’ve had some experience with ‘remote’ communities.
I think it works the other way around.
Once we have fixed the current problems, noone will need to rehash history, or feel guilty, or try to blame others etc etc.
But just agreeing that the problems are terrible, but you don’t know what to do about it is pretty unhelpful.
I think we should do a sister-city thing with every remote Indig. township and a bigger city. There could be training exchanges, and micro finance sponsorship and visits etc.
dexi said :
Well, if you truly believe that then there is only one honorable course open to you.
(dexi)”I know that along the Molonglo river Aboriginals were poisoned and run off the land by the ancestors of families who still own land in the area…It was a local farmer that told me.”
Third or fourth-hand anecdotes are not history. My wife was recently told by a middle aged aboriginal co-worker that when she was young her family were forced to live outside of town and were not allowed in the local shops. The town she mentioned happened to my own home-town, and I can tell you that her story was not true.
My point is that rehashing or rewriting history has not and will not achieve anything. We, and they, should focus on the current problems as they are, not waste our energies trying to attach blame or assuage our guilt.
Indigenous Australians should protest like everyone else.
Provide a new venue for those who’ve chosen to live at the tent embassy long term – a place where protests can be arranged etc.
It should not be in front of Old Parliament House.
Reconciliation Place is nearby as a reminder.