Aboriginal tent embassy declaration
The Australian
By Stephen Brook
29jan02
POLICE stopped activists from the Aboriginal tent embassy from removing a second Coat of Arms from Old Parliament House yesterday.
On Sunday, activists took a Coat of Arms from a wall in front of the building after they commemorated the 30th anniversary of the tent embassy. The Coat of Arms was placed near the embassy's fire.
Embassy members said yesterday they were symbolically reclaiming the emu and kangaroo stolen by white Australia. They were also declaring their continuing sovereignty over Australia's lands and waters.
The tent embassy released a declaration, which was read out by an Aboriginal woman named Waratah.
"We have now reclaimed our sacred emu and kangaroo from the Coat of Arms of the colonisers," the declaration read. "We now reclaim what is rightfully ours, our culture, our sacred symbols, our spirituality, our right to practise our ancient religion and be governed by our laws."
The declaration called on Queen Elizabeth II to exercise her royal prerogative and "restrain her subjects from violating the sacred laws of the first peoples of this land".
Elder Kevin Buzzacott said Aborigines would consider protesting when the Queen opened the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Queensland in March. Mr Buzzacott invited Aboriginal Affairs Minister Philip Ruddock, Governor-General Peter Hollingworth and MPs to visit them to discuss Aboriginal issues. "For 30 years we still haven't had a group of those people come down and talk," he said.
Female elder Wadjularbinna likened the despair of Aborigines to that which led to the terrorist attacks on September 11, which she did not condone.
"Desperate people take desperate measures -- just like the Muslim people did on September 11 in New York," she said. "But we understand the desperation of people -- we're desperate too.
"We're not going to run around and rip all the Coat of Arms off everything else. We don't have to do that to make the point. We have made the point." But hours after the declaration was read out, a large group led by Mr Buzzacott took a ladder to the main entrance where a Coat of Arms was attached on top of a portico.
Detective Superintendent Ray Sweeney said: "His intention was to take the Coat of Arms in front of the parliament. It was a negotiated settlement and he's gone back."
Police made no arrests and said they intended to negotiate with the tent embassy for the return of the Coat of Arms taken on Sunday.