Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy

Last updated

The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy in March 2016 20150316 Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy.jpg
The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy in March 2016

The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy was a protest camp run by Aboriginal Australians in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern. Its aim was to keep an area of land known as The Block in Aboriginal hands, and to ensure the land was used solely for low-cost housing for Aboriginal people. It was started by Aboriginal elder, Jenny Munro, and was named after the original Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. [1]

The organisers of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy said they were defying the gentrification of Redfern, and described the eviction of the Aboriginal people from the area as "social cleansing". [2]

History

The site of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy, pictured in July 2017 Site of former redfern tent embassy.png
The site of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy, pictured in July 2017

The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on National Sorry Day on 26 May 2014, when Jenny Munro, her husband Lyall Munro Jnr, [3] [4] and other Aboriginal elders erected numerous tents on the otherwise vacant land. There were formerly houses on The Block, which were purchased with a grant from the Whitlam government in 1972, as a result of a campaign led by Bob Bellear to secure low-cost housing for Aboriginal people. This was because Aboriginal people were subjected to severe discrimination when seeking accommodation in the private rental market. [5] Purchase of houses continued over time.

The Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC), an Aboriginal charity, was set up to administer and oversee the provision of low-cost housing for Aboriginal people. Over the years, there were complaints that the AHC was not transparent about its financial affairs, and it was accused of nepotism and mismanagement. As median house prices in Redfern doubled in the late 1990s, the AHC began evicting Aboriginal tenants from The Block, and moving them to other AHC-owned houses further away from Sydney's centre. The AHC then demolished the vacated houses on The Block. [6]

Munro said The Block is sacred, sovereign Aboriginal land. [7] But on 26 May 2014, the CEO of the Aboriginal Housing Company, Michael Mundine, said that The Block was private land. However, he told reporters that he would not instruct the police to remove the tent embassy inhabitants from the site. [8]

Mundine announced plans to use the land across the road from The Block for a $70 million commercial development, including retail outlets, a gymnasium, and housing for 154 non-Aboriginal students from the nearby University of Sydney. [2] He said he still intends to put Aboriginal housing on The Block, but there is no funding to make it happen. [9] People are concerned that the plans have changed, but as there is little information available, calls for greater transparency have been renewed. Mundine caused outrage by teaming with developer Deicorp, a company whose agents had advertised its new luxury apartments in the area by stating:

"The Aboriginals have already moved out, now Redfern is the last virgin suburb close to city, it will have great potential for the capital growth in the near future." [10]

On 21 February 2015, Mundine's AHC issued eviction notices to the tent embassy inhabitants, telling them they were on private land and that he would get the authorities to remove them. The Aboriginal people at the tent embassy vowed to stay. [2] In August 2015 the protesters at the tent embassy lost a Supreme Court case asking for a possession order for the land. The court instead ruled that the land was the property of the AHC. The protesters previously stated they would not vacate until the AHC prioritised affordable housing for Aboriginal people at the location. [11] The Tent Embassy claimed victory later that month, when the federal government agreed to spend $70 million on 62 homes for Aboriginal people. [12] The embassy has since been closed and as of July 2017, the site remains fenced off and undeveloped.

The Aboriginal activist Ray Jackson was a prominent campaigner for the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and was a familiar sight there up until his death in April 2015. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redfern, New South Wales</span> Inner suburb of Sydney, Australia

Redfern is an inner southern suburb of Sydney located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Strawberry Hills is a locality on the border with Surry Hills. The area experienced the process of gentrification and is subject to extensive redevelopment plans by the state government, to increase the population and reduce the concentration of poverty in the suburb and neighbouring Waterloo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heirisson Island</span> Island in Perth, Western Australia

Heirisson Island is an island in the Swan River in Western Australia at the eastern end of Perth Water, between the suburbs of East Perth and Victoria Park. It occupies an area of 285600 m2, and is connected to the two foreshores by The Causeway. The next upstream island is Kuljak Island, then Ron Courtney Island, with no islands in the Swan River downstream between Heirisson Island and the Indian Ocean other than the artificial islet in Elizabeth Quay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboriginal Tent Embassy</span> Permanent on-going protest in Australia

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation site as a focus for representing the political rights of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. Established on 26 January 1972, and celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022, it is the longest continuous protest for Indigenous land rights in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Block (Sydney)</span> Social housing in Redfern, Sydney

The Block is a colloquial but universally applied name given to a residential block of social housing in the suburb of Redfern, Sydney, bound by Eveleigh, Caroline, Louis and Vine Streets. Beginning in 1973, houses on this block were purchased over a period of 30 years by the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) for use as a project in Aboriginal-managed housing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Mundine</span> Australian boxer, rugby league footballer, and rapper (born 1975)

Anthony Steven Mundine is an Australian former professional boxer and rugby league footballer. In boxing he competed from 2000 to 2021, and held the WBA super-middleweight title twice between 2003 and 2008. He also held the IBO middleweight title from 2009 to 2010, and the WBA interim super-welterweight title from 2011 to 2012. Mundine is well known for his heated rivalries with fellow Australians Danny Green and Daniel Geale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Foley</span>

Gary Edward Foley is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbaynggirr people, academic, writer and actor. He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern in the 1970s. He also co-wrote and acted in the first Indigenous Australian stage production, Basically Black.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Mundine (boxer)</span> Australian boxer

Anthony William Mundine OAM is an Australian former boxer, and one of the country's most accomplished Indigenous fighters. The only Australian boxer to compete professionally in four weight divisions, he held the Australian middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight titles, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight and light heavyweight titles. He also challenged once for the WBA world middleweight title in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom Ride (Australia)</span> 1965 Aboriginal Australian protest bus journey

The Freedom Ride of 1965 was a journey undertaken by a group of Aboriginal Australians in a bus across New South Wales, led by Charles Perkins. Its aim was to bring to the attention of the public the extent of racial discrimination in Australia, and it was a significant event in the history of civil rights for Indigenous Australians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mum Shirl</span> Australian activist

Coleen Shirley Perry Smith AM MBE, better known as Mum Shirl, was a prominent Wiradjuri woman, social worker and humanitarian activist committed to justice and welfare of Aboriginal Australians. She was a founding member of the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Aboriginal Medical Service, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, the Aboriginal Children's Services, and the Aboriginal Housing Company in Redfern, a suburb of Sydney. During her lifetime she was recognised as an Australian National Living Treasure.

The National Black Theatre (NBT) was a theatre company run by a small group of Aboriginal people based in the Sydney suburb of Redfern which operated from 1972 to 1977. The original concept for the theatre grew out of political struggles, especially the land rights demonstrations, which at the time were being organised by the Black Moratorium Committee. The centre held workshops in modern dancing, tribal dancing, writing for theatre, karate and photography, and provided a venue for new Aboriginal drama. It also ran drama classes under Brian Syron, whose students included Jack Davis, Freddie Reynolds, Maureen Watson, Lillian Crombie, and Hyllus Maris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaele Sobott</span> Australian writer

Gaele Sobott, also known as Gaele Sobott-Mogwe, is an Australian author of poetry, short stories, non-fiction and children's books.

Indigenous land rights in Australia, also known as Aboriginal land rights in Australia, are the rights and interests in land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia; the term may also include the struggle for those rights. Connection to the land and waters is vital in Australian Aboriginal culture and to that of Torres Strait Islander people, and there has been a long battle to gain legal and moral recognition of ownership of the lands and waters occupied by the many peoples prior to colonisation of Australia starting in 1788, and the annexation of the Torres Strait Islands by the colony of Queensland in the 1870s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redfern All Blacks</span> Australian rugby league club, based in Sydney NSW

The Redfern All Blacks, also known as RABs or Redfern, are an Indigenous Australian semi-professional rugby league club based in Redfern, New South Wales, They are a part of the South Sydney District Junior Rugby Football League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Munro</span> Aboriginal Australian activist

Jenny Munro is an Australian Wiradjuri elder and a prominent activist for the rights of Indigenous Australians. She has been at the forefront of the fight for Aboriginal housing at The Block in Sydney and started the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy. She is the sister of activists Isabel Coe and Paul Coe.

Isabel Edie Coe (1951–2012) was a Wiradjuri woman born at Erambie Mission near Cowra, and one of the most prominent Australian Aboriginal leaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Indigenous Human Rights Awards</span> Australian annual Indigenous awards

The National Indigenous Human Rights Awards are annual Australian awards that recognise the contribution of Indigenous Australians to human rights and social justice. The ceremony takes place in Sydney, New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services</span> Historic site in New South Wales, Australia

The Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services, also known as Redfern Aboriginal Children's Services and Archives, or simply Aboriginal Children's Services (ACS), is a community services organisation for Indigenous Australian children in Sydney, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squatting in Australia</span> Occupation of land or buildings in Australia without permission of owner

Squatting in Australia usually refers to a person who is not the owner, taking possession of land or an empty house. In 19th century Australian history, a squatter was a settler who occupied a large tract of Aboriginal land in order to graze livestock. At first this was done illegally, later under licence from the Crown.

Lyall Munro Snr, also known as Uncle Lyall Munro Senior, was an Aboriginal Australian activist, leader, and elder, especially known for his advocacy of Indigenous land rights. He was the husband of Carmine "Maggie" Munro, and father of Lyall Munro Jnr.

Lyall Thomas Munro Jnr is an Aboriginal Australian elder, a former activist and member of many organisations serving Aboriginal Australians. He is known as a local leader in the town of Moree, New South Wales. he is the son of Lyall Munro Snr, and the husband of Jenny Munro.

References

  1. Boarini, Silvia (9 February 2015). "Aboriginal Australians defying gentrification". Al Jazeera.
  2. 1 2 3 Feneley, Rick (23 February 2015). "Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Redfern: We'll evict them from the block says Aboriginal housing boss Mick Mundine". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  3. Pen, Justin (6 July 2014). "'The long haul'". Honi Soit. The Redfern Tent Embassy is not just fighting for affordable housing, but Aboriginal autonomy and self-determination.
  4. Munro, Jenny (24 January 2015). "An interview with Jenny Munro". Gaele Sobott (Interview). Interviewed by Sobott, Gaele. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  5. Shaw, Wendy S. (18 July 2011). Cities of Whiteness. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   978-1-4051-2912-1.
  6. "Rebuilding The Block". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  7. Trenoweth, Samantha (12 July 2014). "The AHC and the battle for Redfern's Block". The Saturday Paper. Melbourne, Australia.
  8. "Sorry Day stoush in Sydney's Redfern". Sky News Australia. 26 May 2014.
  9. "Living Black". SBS OnDemand. 20 June 2014.
  10. Pearlman, Jonathan (10 December 2014). "'The aboriginals have moved out': property promotion sparks outrage in Australia". The Telegraph. London.
  11. Hoerr, Karl (24 August 2015). "Protesters at the Redfern Tent Embassy lose case against developers". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Archived from the original on 10 July 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  12. McNally, Lucy (27 August 2017). "Redfern Tent Embassy claims victory with Aboriginal housing deal". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Archived from the original on 10 July 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  13. Evans, Rachel (24 April 2015). "Wiradjuri warrior Ray Jackson has passed away". Green Left Weekly .

33°53′27″S151°11′56″E / 33.8908804°S 151.1988926°E / -33.8908804; 151.1988926