A file image of three of the original Tent Embassy founders.
NATIONAL: Some believe the debacle that engulfed the Tent Embassy 40th anniversary celebrations in Canberra last month set back the Aboriginal cause a decade or two. CHRIS GRAHAM, who served as the Embassy’s media adviser for the event, thinks its opened up an opportunity for a conversation about the future of Aboriginal protest.
In the months before he died, Chicka Dixon, one of the most loved and respected Aboriginal leaders of the modern era, would host a weekly meeting at his Sydney home with young and upcoming Aboriginal men and women.
One of the central messages Chicka wanted to get out was this: ‘The days of marching on the streets are over. You have to beat them in the boardroom.’
An impressive young Sydney Aboriginal leader who made frequent use of Chicka’s mentoring was relaying the story to me recently.
The conversation was sparked by his disappointment at what had occurred at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on January 26.
He spends his days fighting for the rights of his people, and felt that the actions of some Embassy activists – the demonstration outside an event attended by the Prime Minister, and in particular the burning of the Australian flag – had set the cause back some years.
Aboriginal opinion on the Embassy protest is obviously divided. Some were outraged by it; others were disappointed, but understood where the frustration came from. And of course some supported it, while others felt the Embassy activists didn’t go far enough.
The frustrations of the young Sydney Aboriginal leader are real. But so too are the frustrations of Embassy activists.
If nothing else, the debacle that engulfed the Tent Embassy celebration has once again exposed to the rest of the world the racist underbelly of a very ignorant nation.
But first the facts, because a lot of people have formed opinions on the Embassy based on media reporting.
And that is always a bad idea.
There is perhaps no event in the last few decades that better sums up the divide between black and white Australia than the debacle that engulfed the Embassy celebrations.
It had everything: media misreporting; white political mischief; black political disunity; police violence; frustrated activists. And it had the odd rat-bag, black and white.
The Embassy celebrations kicked off with a large march through the streets of Canberra. It was loud and proud – by some margin the most inspiring march I’ve been to. It was a festival atmosphere and a celebration in every sense of the word.
There was virtually no mainstream media present, certainly nothing comparable to the pack that would descend on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy a few hours later.
The rot began to set in shortly after lunch on January 26, when one of Julia Gillard’s senior media advisers, Tony Hodges, phoned Kim Sattler, a union official who was visiting the Tent Embassy.
According to the official version of events Hodges told Sattler that Tony Abbott had just been interviewed by media about the Embassy, and he expressed the view that it was time to move on.
But what Sattler passed on to Embassy activists was something else altogether.
Audio of the exchange between Sattler and young Central Australian Aboriginal leader Barbara Shaw, reveals that Sattler says Tony Abbott has just told the press the Tent Embassy should be “pulled down”, not that it’s time to move on.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is rushed out of the Lobby restaurant on Survival Day. Aboriginal activist Michael Anderson is pushed against the stair railing.
It’s a pretty subtle difference, but Shaw relays that message – pulled down – to the crowd, word for word.
Shaw was pilloried in the press for her role, but the fact is she merely passed on information that came, embellished or otherwise, direct from the Prime Minister’s office.
Shaw then directs people to The Lobby Restaurant, a few hundred metres from the stage. The rest, as they say, is history. Or in this case, the whitewashed version of history.
Several hundred protestors descended on the restaurant as a result of Shaw’s announcement.
A small handful of them began banging on the glass walls on two sides of the building.
The crowd was chanting ‘Shame’ and ‘Racist’. The object of their anger was Tony Abbott.
Without question, he, Gillard and her minders had reason to be concerned. Protestors were furious at what they’d been told Abbott had said.
After half an hour, Gillard’s security detail is captured by a Channel 9 news crew informing the Prime Minister that they’re becoming increasingly concerned for her safety, and have decided it’s time to go.
The subsequent images of Gillard being bundled out of the restaurant are startling.
Gillard looks terrified as she’s rushed to her vehicle, surrounded by her personal security team and police, including one with a riot shield.
Not surprisingly, the story made headlines around the world. The fact that Gillard stumbled and lost her blue suede shoe in the process only added to the colour.
Also not surprisingly, the vision sparked widespread outrage among average Australians – news sites that offered the opportunity for comment on the issue were inundated.
Overwhelmingly the responses from readers were negative, and on the news.com.au site, the feedback was rabid. ‘Anthony of Perth’ wrote: “Disgraceful, petulant, ignorant, selfish, stupid. Are these the traits these so-called first Australians like projecting to the world?”
And there was ‘Tris of Melbourne’: seriously no other country panders to one race as much as we do to aboriginals… why are they so special?
Someone calling themselves ‘FAIL-TENT EMBASSY’ wrote: “The race that stops the nation….”
Occasionally it was just plain ridiculous. ‘Ames of NSW’: “What about the invasion by Aborigines thousands of years ago – who did they kill off and displace to take ownership of this land. What the British did is no different. Aborigines are not the original inhabitants of this great land.”
And of course there was the obligatory racist rant from a garden variety Townsville redneck. ‘J Cook (how ironic) wrote: “all you heroes out there are you proud of your two youths who bashed and robbed an 93 year old woman in townsville yesterday there parents havnt handed them in yet oh thats right its your culture”.
The coverage from the ABC – supposedly the moderate national broadcaster – best sums up the unfolding media circus.
‘Gillard puts on brave face after riot rescue’.
It’s a pretty compelling headline. It’s also complete bunkum.
The ‘riot’ – at a glass-walled restaurant, mind you – saw not one pane of glass cracked, let alone broken.
There were no arrests and no injuries.
Protestors were angry, and they were loud. But they had good reason to be.
It’s worth noting, the only damage to the Lobby restaurant was to a door – the one which Gillard is rushed through as she exits the building.
And who caused the damage?
Police.
The National Capital Authority, which owns the building, inspected the Lobby the day after the protest, and confirmed to Embassy organisers that the AFP had broken the door in its haste to leave.
Not only was there no riot, but there was never any actual threat to Gillard’s safety, nor that of Abbott.
As footage that emerged after the media had already written the script clearly showed, the only people pursuing Gillard and Abbott when they were rushed from the building were police, journalists and photographers.
There were no protestors within cooee, and certainly none chasing down a terrified Prime Minister nor an Opposition Leader, who can be clearly seen smirking and smiling as he’s rushed to the car.
But that’s not such a newsworthy story.
SEE OVER PAGE.
INSIDE THE TENT: The ‘behind the scenes’ story of the Tent Embassy debacle
A file image of three of the original Tent Embassy founders.
NATIONAL: Some believe the debacle that engulfed the Tent Embassy 40th anniversary celebrations in Canberra last month set back the Aboriginal cause a decade or two. CHRIS GRAHAM, who served as the Embassy’s media adviser for the event, thinks its opened up an opportunity for a conversation about the future of Aboriginal protest.
In the months before he died, Chicka Dixon, one of the most loved and respected Aboriginal leaders of the modern era, would host a weekly meeting at his Sydney home with young and upcoming Aboriginal men and women.
One of the central messages Chicka wanted to get out was this: ‘The days of marching on the streets are over. You have to beat them in the boardroom.’
An impressive young Sydney Aboriginal leader who made frequent use of Chicka’s mentoring was relaying the story to me recently.
The conversation was sparked by his disappointment at what had occurred at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on January 26.
He spends his days fighting for the rights of his people, and felt that the actions of some Embassy activists – the demonstration outside an event attended by the Prime Minister, and in particular the burning of the Australian flag – had set the cause back some years.
Aboriginal opinion on the Embassy protest is obviously divided. Some were outraged by it; others were disappointed, but understood where the frustration came from. And of course some supported it, while others felt the Embassy activists didn’t go far enough.
The frustrations of the young Sydney Aboriginal leader are real. But so too are the frustrations of Embassy activists.
If nothing else, the debacle that engulfed the Tent Embassy celebration has once again exposed to the rest of the world the racist underbelly of a very ignorant nation.
But first the facts, because a lot of people have formed opinions on the Embassy based on media reporting.
And that is always a bad idea.
There is perhaps no event in the last few decades that better sums up the divide between black and white Australia than the debacle that engulfed the Embassy celebrations.
It had everything: media misreporting; white political mischief; black political disunity; police violence; frustrated activists. And it had the odd rat-bag, black and white.
The Embassy celebrations kicked off with a large march through the streets of Canberra. It was loud and proud – by some margin the most inspiring march I’ve been to. It was a festival atmosphere and a celebration in every sense of the word.
There was virtually no mainstream media present, certainly nothing comparable to the pack that would descend on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy a few hours later.
The rot began to set in shortly after lunch on January 26, when one of Julia Gillard’s senior media advisers, Tony Hodges, phoned Kim Sattler, a union official who was visiting the Tent Embassy.
According to the official version of events Hodges told Sattler that Tony Abbott had just been interviewed by media about the Embassy, and he expressed the view that it was time to move on.
But what Sattler passed on to Embassy activists was something else altogether.
Audio of the exchange between Sattler and young Central Australian Aboriginal leader Barbara Shaw, reveals that Sattler says Tony Abbott has just told the press the Tent Embassy should be “pulled down”, not that it’s time to move on.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is rushed out of the Lobby restaurant on Survival Day. Aboriginal activist Michael Anderson is pushed against the stair railing.
It’s a pretty subtle difference, but Shaw relays that message – pulled down – to the crowd, word for word.
Shaw was pilloried in the press for her role, but the fact is she merely passed on information that came, embellished or otherwise, direct from the Prime Minister’s office.
Shaw then directs people to The Lobby Restaurant, a few hundred metres from the stage. The rest, as they say, is history. Or in this case, the whitewashed version of history.
Several hundred protestors descended on the restaurant as a result of Shaw’s announcement.
A small handful of them began banging on the glass walls on two sides of the building.
The crowd was chanting ‘Shame’ and ‘Racist’. The object of their anger was Tony Abbott.
Without question, he, Gillard and her minders had reason to be concerned. Protestors were furious at what they’d been told Abbott had said.
After half an hour, Gillard’s security detail is captured by a Channel 9 news crew informing the Prime Minister that they’re becoming increasingly concerned for her safety, and have decided it’s time to go.
The subsequent images of Gillard being bundled out of the restaurant are startling.
Gillard looks terrified as she’s rushed to her vehicle, surrounded by her personal security team and police, including one with a riot shield.
Not surprisingly, the story made headlines around the world. The fact that Gillard stumbled and lost her blue suede shoe in the process only added to the colour.
Also not surprisingly, the vision sparked widespread outrage among average Australians – news sites that offered the opportunity for comment on the issue were inundated.
Overwhelmingly the responses from readers were negative, and on the news.com.au site, the feedback was rabid. ‘Anthony of Perth’ wrote: “Disgraceful, petulant, ignorant, selfish, stupid. Are these the traits these so-called first Australians like projecting to the world?”
And there was ‘Tris of Melbourne’: seriously no other country panders to one race as much as we do to aboriginals… why are they so special?
Someone calling themselves ‘FAIL-TENT EMBASSY’ wrote: “The race that stops the nation….”
Occasionally it was just plain ridiculous. ‘Ames of NSW’: “What about the invasion by Aborigines thousands of years ago – who did they kill off and displace to take ownership of this land. What the British did is no different. Aborigines are not the original inhabitants of this great land.”
And of course there was the obligatory racist rant from a garden variety Townsville redneck. ‘J Cook (how ironic) wrote: “all you heroes out there are you proud of your two youths who bashed and robbed an 93 year old woman in townsville yesterday there parents havnt handed them in yet oh thats right its your culture”.
The coverage from the ABC – supposedly the moderate national broadcaster – best sums up the unfolding media circus.
‘Gillard puts on brave face after riot rescue’.
It’s a pretty compelling headline. It’s also complete bunkum.
The ‘riot’ – at a glass-walled restaurant, mind you – saw not one pane of glass cracked, let alone broken.
There were no arrests and no injuries.
Protestors were angry, and they were loud. But they had good reason to be.
It’s worth noting, the only damage to the Lobby restaurant was to a door – the one which Gillard is rushed through as she exits the building.
And who caused the damage?
Police.
The National Capital Authority, which owns the building, inspected the Lobby the day after the protest, and confirmed to Embassy organisers that the AFP had broken the door in its haste to leave.
Not only was there no riot, but there was never any actual threat to Gillard’s safety, nor that of Abbott.
As footage that emerged after the media had already written the script clearly showed, the only people pursuing Gillard and Abbott when they were rushed from the building were police, journalists and photographers.
There were no protestors within cooee, and certainly none chasing down a terrified Prime Minister nor an Opposition Leader, who can be clearly seen smirking and smiling as he’s rushed to the car.
But that’s not such a newsworthy story.
SEE OVER PAGE.
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