9 December 2005

Tent Embassy under attack (again)

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The ABC is reporting here

That a new report has reccomended camping at the 30 year old site of the Tent embassy be banned. Jim Lloyd, Federal Territiories Minister has told 666ABC today that the report calls for an educational center to be put in place, and the days of campers are outnumbered.

A Spokesman for the Tent embassy (sounded a bit groggy) says it will require all the chiefs of the land with the authority from God to make the decision.

I do believe the Tent embassy is an eyesore for most Canberrans going to Old Parliament house, and suppourt the reports decision to place an educational centre in it’s place but i’ve never heard Aboriginals claiming God was on their side with this. What happend to the dreamtime stories, the rainbow serpent etc, not God

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Keep it. The country’s too damn relaxed and comfortable as it is (barring sporadic eruptions in certain parts of Sydney).
Mind you, I read the other day that before our Indigenous/Aboriginal folk were the go here, a bunch of those midgets/pygmies (in the mould of the Flores mob) preceded them. Can we have some kind of monument/shrine/embassy for them as well please?

I had someone make an application for a job where I work and they put their address as the “Tent Embassy”.
Do they have mailboxes? Is it a legit address?
I thought it was actually kind of funny…..

If the tent embassy is representative of black Australia it doesn’t say much for black Australia. The embassy has more support from bleeding-heart white Australians than the traditional owners. These same bleeding-hearts would run for the hills if a car load from the tent embassy dropped around for a coffee.

maybe they should build the dragway where the tent embassy is.

that area was used in the dreamtime as a v8 supercar track.

human movement across the globe has always involved occupation and subjugation of original inhabitants.

do i hold a grudge against the danish for invading the island now known as great britain ?

do i hold a grudge against the visigoths for invading the iberian peninsula ?

so im sorry, but its just tough that they were the last in a long line of peoples who were invaded and subjugated. their culture has had to change to accommodate this turn of events, but as ther eis more aboriginals alive todayt than in 1788, i’d say that things havent turned out too badly overall.

intersting fact – in 1788 teh lifespan of an aborigianl was longer than that of a european. they were healthier and had better diets.

that is something which i’d liek to see reoccur. so instead of whining about giving land back (newsflash – it aint gonn happen) why not focus that energy into restoring aboriginal culture and health. work with govt to eradicate poverty, substance abuse and domestic violence.

and bulldoze that eyesore feral camp.

Maelinar, it was a general observation as much as anything – admittedly sparked by yours but I guess mostly about the fact that I’ve heard the “what are they doing there” line spun about any number of protesters over the years, that’s all.

Col, I was steriotyping two people, not the genre.

“Evil flourishes when good people do nothing” … Seems like there are a whole lot of people doing nothing at the tent embassy.

Don’t know how good they are, though.

It’s funny isn’t it. You protest about something that has a direct personal impact on you and you get called a Nimby, you protest about something that you care about but which doesn’t personally impact you and you’re a nutter.

If someone cares enough about something in this world to get off their arse and try to do something about it, good for them. What’s that old expression? – Evil flourishes when good people do nothing.

The commentary relating to God and not the dreamtime merely strengthens my previous statements that the Aboriginal Tent Embassy has become polluted by different protestors, with their own agendas, which has diluted all of the protests.

Just this morning as I drove to work, I saw two white chicks, dreadlocked, pushing a wheelbarrow from the tent embassy to somewhere in the parliamentary gardens of OPH.

What 2 dreadlocked white people have to do with an aboriginal land/rights claim I don’t know, but I hazard to guess that it’s a little more in the nutters category than genuine protesters.

Personally, regarding the embassy, my feelings are to clean out the riff-raff, but allow the genuine protest to continue. All the other idiots can go find other bandwagons to leech off.

Another thing I considered in relation to the tent embassy as I came into work (the dreadlocked white people had already gotten me thinking of this), is that the percentage of indigenous blood should also be a factor in determining your indigenous claim. AKA the 1/16th cutoff line as is used in NZ to determine how Maori you are. I’m certain that would cull a few more of those protestors out of the embassy quicksmart.

But then again, I think that should determine the amount of support you receive as well, as a percentage of the total amount you can receive, directly based upon the amount of digi blood in your system.

There will continue to be a status quo whilst there is a (deliberate) lack of concensus.

midnitecalla7:17 pm 11 Dec 05

Oh please, not another Campagner on “how Aust was lost ” brigade , I for one Acknowledge the Aboriginals Lot, and wish we could help better , but the answer is in education not rhetoric . as for A tidy “campsite” i beg to differ , and feel that a Proper Embassy, representative of the Various Aboriginal Nations and of the same feel as other Nations of the earth, already represented should be built on the site. time and again the issue has been brought up only to be quashed either by the Govt or the Tribal Reps,time and again! its getting embarrassing for both sides.

as i have heard that offers are and were on the table to offer a Center to put the Cause across
and educate the international Visitors and School kids in world class environment . comfortable to all, at the moment its not helping to twilight walkers to have that “town” with its intense unwelcome feeling and smell . Ihave picked up Tourists as a Cabbie Complaining that were accosted rudley and unfairly as they walked through the rose gardens, thinking ( and quite rightly so ) that it was public lands with right of thourough fare. And it defeats the cause of the protest if the visitors of the wider world cannot approach and ask questions in a apropriate manner.

Thomas we live in a “modern” age this soapbox ranting is now getting tired and worn out

and for New generations not at all interesting .I tend to flip over the channel nowadays or read the next page because the the “cause” has jaded me so, and its the man in the street like my self you need to reach.

Thomas, you are a tool! All this whinging about an invasion is stupid and isn’t doing the Aboriginal cause any good. You sound just like some of those Aboriginal activists who bang on and on about how oppressive white Australia is, yet at the same time they all seem to like living like a white person with a nice car, house, mobile phone and money. You can’t have it both ways.

Anyway, the ‘Embassy’ is a bloody eyesore and a complete joke. “Beacon of hope” – bullshit!

Time to move on guys. Go and get a job!

(And another thing Thomas, the space bar at the bottom of the keyboard is quite useful sometimes, so please don’t be afraid to use it.)

Puggy Pearson2:41 pm 11 Dec 05

The camp site seems neat and tidy?????

What planet are you on? Take a walk down there and actually get close to it. It’s a pig sty

Thomas Wertheim12:15 pm 11 Dec 05

I have already written to a media outlet about this tent embassy,and this is what I wrote,this tent embassy must remain,as an eternal beacon,to Australia and the world,that this beacon,is there for unfinished business,which is illegal invasion and occupation by a foreign nation,that is the british monarchy,australia belongs to the Aboriginal nation,and despite 200 years or so of progress,it still is and will remain an illegal occupation,and this tent embassy is there,to protest in the open,and should not be removed,and replaced with brick and morter,to become just another building,in which to hide the cause of the Aboriginal protest,and few people will know or will not be interested of what goes on behind closed doors,and that is what,those that oppose the tent embassy,those across the road in Parliament house will be glad,as their crimes against the real AUSTRALIANS,will no longer be exposed to the rest of the world,so that beacon of hope out in the open,should remain,to shame those across in the chambers of parliament,and for the rest of australians and the world to know,this two hundred years of occupation is illegal and will remain so,until a treaty is signed,and agreements made with the owners of this country Australia.

Personally I don’t find the site of a bunch of people camping on the lawn offensive, from where I’ve stood the campsite seems fairly neat and tidy.

I’m well aware that there are a number of people that do consider it an eyesore or worse, but maybe if it is that’s not such a bad thing anyways.

It’s an undenial fact that the Aboriginal people of Australia still face a number of significant problems, problems that have been noted by the UN, among a range of international organisations.

Surely having something slightly jarring to the eye is a far better way to be reminded of the need for these problems to be addressed than yet another sterile Canberra site of significance in the form of a state sanctioned educational centre.

I drive past probably 5 or 6 places that hold symbolic importance in this country (Parliament, the Lodge, the Mint etc) every day but rarely give two thoughts to what these places mean to me or the country and you just know that some sanitised ed. centre would soon fade into similar backgroundness.

In a city which is at the same time a very clean, fresh, relatively well serviced and livable yet slightly sterile, the tent embassy (in some ways like the Falun Gong protesters) brings a bit of soul.

As for the report, you hire the right consultant and you get the result you want.

An educational centre sounds a bit museum like.
Whereas the current tent embassy is intended as a symbol and a protest. Can’t they have the educational centre, and still retain the Embassy, but just not allow it to take over the whole lawn there.

It’s interesting.

Lloyd has done a better than average job of building a broad coalition for this change.

And the Spokesperson against was citing the divine right of kings (him being one as near as I could tell) as the contra argument.

Which hasn’t done much to advance a cause in a few hundred years.

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