Australian Aboriginal History

"Australian history started with Captain Cook," is what a lot of people, even today, tell me when asked what they learned at school. Secondary history books, published this year, sometimes brush over Indigenous history in twelve pages only.

Until we get it right with the teaching of Aboriginal history, then I don't think that we can pretend to be Australians together.—Dr Jackie Huggins, Indigenous educator, author and activist [1].

When I studied history at the ANU in the 1970s there was still a widely held view, and I think it was the conventional view, that there was no Aboriginal history.—Marcia Langton, Aboriginal author [3].

History of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy

Chicka Dixon is an award-winning campaigner for Indigenous rights and reconciliation. He remembers how the Aboriginal Tent Embassy came into existence in 1972 [2]:

"On 25 January 1972, a small group of us Kooris were protesting outside NSW Parliament House in Macquarie Street, Sydney, because the Liberal (Coalition) Party had come out in Canberra the previous night with its policy on land rights. It stated that Aboriginal people cold lease their own land.

"We disagreed with that and held a meeting in Lynne Craigie Thomson's place of abode in Burton Street, Surry Hills, just down the road from where the Deadly Vibe magazine offices are now.

"I moved that we take over Pinchgut Island in the centre of the Sydney Harbour because the American Indians had taken over Alcatraz just three weeks earlier. I was out-voted by one vote and the decision was not to recognise Australia and set up our own 'Embassy' in Canberra.

"The next morning, Monday 26 January, Canberra awoke to four young Aborigines—Billy Craigie, Tony Coorie, Michael ['Ghillar'] Anderson and Bert Williams—standing under a large beach umbrella [in front of Old Parliament House].

"I was a wharfie at the time and joined them on the Friday. The Member for the ACT, Kep Enderby, informed me that there was no legislation under the Federal Act to remove campers, so we put up eight tents and gave ourselves portfolios.

"A dear, kind lady from Canberra gave us a big blue tent which became the official 'Tent Embassy'.

"Like all embassies we needed a flag, so Harold Thomas, [designer of the Aboriginal flag] from Adelaide, gave us his flag to fly.

The Tent Embassy was busted by police on 20 July 1972 in "the most violent demonstration" Chicka Dixon had ever participated in. Chicka Dixon turned 81 in 2009.

Of the original founders, Tony Coorie went back to Sydney the next day. Bert Williams had to report in to the police in Melbourne two days after the erection; he died three months later of an overdose.

Other important people connected with the embassy are Gary Foley, a very intellectual and multi-faceted man, Chicka Dixon, a tribal elder responsible for the political leadership, Pearl Gibbs and Paul Coe [4].

Fact According to the last remaining founder and the first ambassador of the Aboriginal Embassy, Michael Anderson, the term 'tent embassy' was coined by the media and came into use only in 1992, 20 years after it was set up.

Related: Interview with Michael Anderson

Was Australia invaded or colonised?

Indigenous and non-Indigenous people have different views whether Australia was 'invaded' or 'colonised'. Here I start to collect quotes by both sides so you can make up your own mind.

If you found a good quote that could go here, shoot me an email!

We must now assert in the strongest possible way the message that Australia was indeed invaded by a military force under the control of the British Admiralty.—Michael Ghillar Anderson, Aboriginal elder [5].

Out of respect for Aboriginal culture I use Indigenous sources as much as possible.
[1] Koori Mail 390 (6/12/2006) p.14 [2] 'Looking back', Koori Mail 454 p.21 [3] 'First Australians delves into ignored Aboriginal history', Courier Mail, 19/12/2008 [4] personal email [5] 'Call to an Aboriginal summit in Canberra', press release by Michael Anderson, 12/12/2009