Jenny Munro (née Coe) is an Australian

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , ...

elder and a prominent activist for the rights of

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

. She has been at the forefront of the fight for Aboriginal housing at The Block in Sydney, and started the

Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy 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 l ...

. She is the sister of activists

Isabel 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. Activism Coe was one of the activists who monitored police brutality and harassment against Abor ...

and

Paul Coe Paul Coe (born 4 February 1949), a Wiradjuri man born at Erambie Mission in Cowra, is an Australian Aboriginal activist. He is known for his advocacy of Aboriginal rights, with involvement in the publicity drive for the 1967 referendum, and the ...

. She is an active member of the Waterloo Public Housing Action Group.

Early life

Munro was born to parents Les and Agnes Coe, who were

Aboriginal land rights Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenou ...

activists. She is the younger sister of activists

and brother

, and had another sister and brother. She grew up on

Erambie Mission Erambie Mission is an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal community located on the western banks of the Lachlan River, from the town of Cowra, in the Central West, New South Wales, Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. History Eramb ...

, near the town of

Cowra, New South Wales Cowra is a small town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre and the council seat for the Cowra Shire, with a population of 9,863. Cowra is located approximately above sea level, on the ...

. In 1972, Munro's parents took her to the

Aboriginal Tent Embassy 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 (Australia Day) 1972, and celebrating i ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, where they joined the protest by sleeping in tents. At the age of 17, she moved to the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern. In 1972 in Sydney, she met her husband,

Lyall Munro Jnr Lyall Thomas Munro Jnr (born 1951) 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 ...

, and they both became founding members of the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC). Together, she and Lyall moved to an AHC-run house in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, where they raised two children. She successfully completed an arts / law degree at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. In 1978, Munro began work as a trainee bookkeeper at the Aboriginal Children's Services in Sydney, eventually becoming Administrator of the organisation. She was elected chairperson of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), and was involved in campaigns to convince the New South Wales government to change its approach to Aboriginal issues. In the

1998 Australian federal election The 1998 Australian federal election was held to determine the members of the 39th Parliament of Australia. It was held on 3 October 1998. All 148 seats of the House of Representatives and 40 seats of the 76-seat Senate were up for election. T ...

, she stood as an independent in the electoral

Division of Sydney The Division of Sydney is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. History The division draws its name from Sydney, the most populous city in Australia, which itself was named after former British Home Secretary Tho ...

Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy

On 26 May 2014 Munro launched

to reclaim affordable Aboriginal housing for the former residents of the area known as The Block. The Embassy despite a stand-off with the

Aboriginal Housing Company 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 purchase ...

, which has evicted all the former Aboriginal tenants is continuing to occupy The Block. In February 2015 Aboriginal Housing Company chairman Mick Mundine threatened to commence the eviction of the protesters led by Munro. In Sydney's major newspaper, Daisy Dumas reported that the standoff between the protestors and the Housing Company intensified in 2015 with the matter before the Supreme Court for judgment and with the State Attorney General alerted. After more than 400 days of the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Munro declared victory when the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs,

Nigel Scullion Nigel Gregory Scullion (born 4 May 1956) is a former Australian politician who was a Australian Senate, Senator for the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2019. He was a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) and sat with the National Party of A ...

intervened on the Embassy's behalf and brokered a peaceful resolution between the Housing Company and the Embassy. Scullion committed $5 million of federal funds to the site for 62 affordable Aboriginal housing units.

Honours

National Indigenous Human Rights 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. History The National Ind ...

- 2015 Eddie Mabo Award for Social Justice

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munro, Jenny 1956 births Living people Australian indigenous rights activists Women human rights activists University of New South Wales alumni Wiradjuri people