CANBERRA: The rundown aboriginal protest embassy in the centre of Canberra’s political district is an eyesore and that’s exactly how the inhabitants like it. “It sits there in silence, but it’s a pain for the politicians,” Michael Anderson, who helped set up the camp site more than 30 years ago, told Reuters.

Aboriginal leaders set up the protest camp in 1972 on the lawn in front of Australia’s first national parliament to support their campaign for traditional land rights, declaring the collection of tents and campfires as a ‘tent embassy’.

The tent embassy is Australia’s longest continuous protest and has been recognized with national heritage status.

But the Australian government has now become fed up with years of complaints about rowdy camp behaviour and, with many black leaders withdrawing support for the embassy, wants to clean up the site and end the protest.

Australian Territories Minister Jim Lloyd wants the tent embassy replaced with some kind of permanent memorial, but its inhabitants are determined to stay.

“At different times the tent embassy has been hijacked for different purposes,” said Lloyd, whose portfolio covers the site.

“In its current configuration, I don’t believe it represents the aspirations and vision of Aboriginal people,” he said.

Many indigenous leaders agree with Lloyd, believing progress for aborigines now lies in working to resolve problems rather than through the tent embassy’s confrontational approach and campaign to overturn Australia’s constitution and laws.

Matilda House, an elder of Canberra’s Ngunnawal aboriginal people and one of the original tent embassy protesters, is one of those who has now withdrawn her support.

“I want to see the tent embassy actually do what it was set up for in 1972,” said House, adding that the embassy should be pushing new campaigns, such as traditional sea and fishing rights for indigenous people.

“It is not supporting the issues of people who want to move on. It doesn’t really represent the whole of Australia in their issues,” she told Reuters.

Designed to contrast with the expansive embassies of Canberra’s plush diplomatic district, the tent embassy was erected to be a daily reminder to politicians as they entered parliament of the problems faced by Aborigines.

Australia’s 490,000 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders represent about 2.4 per cent of the population but make up the most disadvantaged group in Australia.

Aborigines suffer higher rates of unemployment, imprisonment, alcohol and drug abuse, and preventable illness. They also die an average 17 years younger than white Australians.

Until 1988, when parliament moved to its new building a short distance away, the tent embassy was in the foreground of the sweeping views from the prime minister’s office.

The tent embassy existed on and off for 20 years but became a permanent fixture in 1992 when an old shipping container painted with aboriginal designs was placed on the site.

A small band of hardy protesters have lived there on a rotation system ever since.

In its 33 years, the tent embassy has become a powerful symbol for black rights and has been credited with fostering new levels of political consciousness and black activism.

Successive governments have tried several times over three decades to shut down the tent embassy and move the protest on, but each attempt has led to angry and often violent confrontations between Aborigines and police.

Anderson, who still regularly visits the site he helped establish in 1972, believes the tent embassy remains relevant as a focus of black protest in Australia.

“That embassy stands for something that is wrong in this country,” he said.

Aboriginal leaders remain angry with the government’s disregard of spiritual issues, such as Prime Minister John Howard’s refusal to apologize for past injustices, and its sole focus on often tough practical solutions for indigenous affairs.

In the past year, the government has scrapped the elected indigenous body which had control of spending for health and housing in aboriginal communities, replacing it with an advisory board of indigenous leaders hand-picked by the government.

Anderson said the embassy was a vehicle for both black and white Australians to express their grievances against the government, and it would continue to provoke controversy.

Lloyd hopes to have settled on a new plan for the embassy site by late October.

Anderson, however, is adamant it will stay.

“It doesn’t have a use-by date,” he said. “Until proper justice and until the government deals with the true issues then the embassy will always be here, and it will always be an eyesore.”—Reuters