Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of people who have died.
On a wet day 50 years ago, four men arrived in Canberra from Sydney and grappled with how to make themselves heard by the government.
Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Joe Williams and Tony Coorey considered their options.
Mr Anderson said they dismissed the idea of a hunger strike or a nude protest. Self-immolation was quickly ruled out too.
"Well, that was out of the question, I can assure you of that," he said.
"So anyway, Tony Coorey was on the throne down the hallway with the door open and he was listening to the conversation — he didn't want to miss out.
"And we were sold on it immediately."
They didn't have a tent, but were able to borrow a beach umbrella along with some placards, and plastic sheets. They set up on the lawn in front of Parliament House.
It rained all night.
"We were all looking at each other and saying, 'Well, we'll see what happens'," Mr Anderson said.
"We ended up like an exhibit, I suppose, in a zoo, because I think every car in Canberra, when they realised on the ABC radio, that there's four black fellows sitting over here in front of Parliament House under a beach umbrella, what the hell is all that?"
Mr Anderson described his younger self as "pretty much bulletproof and bombproof" and he was determined for those in power to hear of the challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
'Coming after what is rightfully ours'
The decade preceding the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy had been one of major change in Australia.
In 1963, the Australian Government took 300 square kilometres of land from the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land to mine bauxite. The Yolngu people reacted by writing the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, which called for broad-ranging reform and recognition of Indigenous ownership.
The Yirrkala Bark Petitions were the first Indigenous documents to be recognised by the Commonwealth parliament.
In 1965, all First Nations people were given the right to vote when Queensland joined the rest of the nation and enfranchised Aboriginal residents.
The Freedom Ride of the mid-1960's raised ongoing issues of health, education, and housing disparity for Indigenous people.
In 1966, 200 Gurindji stockmen, domestic workers and their families, led by Vincent Lingiari, walked off Wave Hill Station, beginning a seven-year strike fighting for equal pay, conditions, and land ownership.
In 1967, a referendum was held on whether to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the census and whether Indigenous people would be subject to Commonwealth laws, rather than just state laws. The response was a resounding yes, with 90 per cent of votes in favour of the change.
But it was a decision of the Northern Territory Supreme Court against the Yolngu people in relation to the bauxite mine that triggered the protest that led to the establishment of the Tent Embassy.
On January 25, 1972, the McMahon government announced the implementation of a new system that rejected granting independent ownership of traditional land to Indigenous people. Instead, Indigenous communities would be offered 50-year general purpose leases provided they could demonstrate a social and economic use for the land. The leases excluded any mineral and forest rights.
Mr Anderson said this decision prompted renewed calls for action.
"We're coming after what is rightfully ours."
The four young men began their protest outside the New South Wales State Parliament building in Sydney.
"Once we were protesting there, we said: 'Well, Billy McMahon don't really work here. We better go somewhere where Billy McMahon's office is and let's confront him'," Mr Anderson said.
Once the group had established themselves in Canberra, they found a gap in the law about camping on Crown Land.
"As it turned out, there was not a law in Australia that could stop us from putting up the embassy," Mr Anderson said.
Days later, they issued a list of demands:
- Complete rights to the Northern Territory as a state within Australia and the installation of a primary Aboriginal State Parliament. These rights would include all mining rights to the land.
- Ownership and mining rights of all Australian reserve lands in Australia.
- The preservation of all sacred sites in Australia.
- Ownership of areas in major cities, including mining rights.
- Compensation for lands that were not able to be returned, starting with $6 billion and including a percentage of the gross national income every year.
"I'd like to think of myself and my three colleagues as the guys who woke Australia up and made the world aware of the fact that there was a problem here," Mr Anderson said.
Modern divisions touch on trauma
In the years that followed the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, it would move a number of times around Canberra. At times it was the scene of clashes and showdowns between activists and authorities. It became a focal point for discussions and debates about the future of Australia.
Divisive to some — there have been arson attacks on some of the buildings of the Tent Embassy.
Last month, a group of protesters claimed to be linked to the embassy and vandalised the facade of Old Parliament House.
It was swiftly condemned by Indigenous leaders, Ngunnawal Elders, the Tent Embassy, and politicians.
"Violence doesn't achieve anything. We have enough violence in some of our communities that we don't need to emulate it at the national level. Have the discussions, take forward your debate, but do it peacefully, but do it respectfully," federal MP and Noongar man Ken Wyatt said.
Federal MP and Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney said protesters needed to have a good, hard look at themselves.
"They are doing no favours to anyone in the way they are conducting themselves. I am very disappointed to see the coalescing of anti-vaxxers and a so-called sovereignty movement," she said.
Leah House is a Ngambri woman from Canberra, who's grandmother, Matilda House, was involved in establishing the Aboriginal Test Embassy.
"I think the problem that I've really watched over the last few weeks, as we watched it unfold, has been the total abuse of the trauma of our people and our struggle, and watching has really activated a lot of trauma within me," she said.
Beyond 50 years: the future of the Tent Embassy
The embassy is now the site of the longest protest for Indigenous land rights, sovereignty and self-determination in the world.
Mr Anderson said it has achieved a lot, particularly with the Whitlam and Fraser governments.
"I think the greatest achievement is that [question of] 'why is it still there?'. I think that's what everybody is asking, that's what's on the lips of everybody: 'Why is the Embassy still there?'," he said.
"And so when they look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves that question, they have to look over their shoulder and say 'OK, well, history hasn't been kind and maybe we do need to change our discourse in order to improve the status here of Aboriginal people and give them proper recognition'."
Mr Wyatt was the first Indigenous person elected to the House of Representatives and the first Indigenous member of Cabinet. He is now the Minister for Indigenous Australians and said the Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a powerful symbol of the need to address inequality.
"I don't think the Tent Embassy is redundant," Mr Wyatt said.
"It's a powerful symbol that has left a legacy to remind all Australians that it took four men sitting under an umbrella to heighten an awareness of many of the challenges that exist within the Aboriginal communities across the geographic diversity of this nation.
"We have come a long way in terms of being inside all of the institutions that exist within our country and organisations, but I think one thing that we need to reflect on is the very strong symbolic element that prevails around the term 'Tent Embassy'.
"I think we need to acknowledge the founders of the Tent Embassy for having the courage of conviction at a time when it would have been very hard, knowing the consequences of setting up a place outside the Australian parliament."
Ms Burney said the Tent Embassy is just as relevant now as it has ever been.
"Those four young men, not all of them still with us, really sparked something in this country where politicians — particularly the fact that it was in front of Parliament House — they had to take notice of what first people were saying," Ms Burney said.
"The fire continues to burn there. And it still says something very powerful to the Australian public, and that is that Aboriginal Australia has been here for a very long time, and will continue to be here into the future.
"Making a very clear statement about the condition of Aboriginal Australia is testament to just how important it was. And I think it's, it's a symbol that has come to represent to me personally, the struggle, the political struggle, in particular, of Aboriginal Australia."
Ms House said the 50th anniversary of the embassy was a time to celebrate.
"But it's also a time to mourn and grieve as well and reflect on 50 years," she said.
It's young people like Leah House, that Michael Anderson sees as key to change.
"I'm looking forward to hearing what the youth say about where it goes after this," Mr Anderson said.
"We need them to articulate what it is that they think is the unfinished business that we started back then.
"We still got a long way to go. And with our knowledge and our experience in that political circle and negotiating and fighting for the struggle, I think we can guide them, but they need to paint their picture now into the future and we'll support and give them every support and guidance we can."
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