20150316 Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy

The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy was a protest camp run by

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...

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 Jenny Munro (née Coe) 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 Aborig ...

, and was named after the original

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 ...

in Canberra. 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 Social cleansing ( es, limpieza social) is social group-based killing that consists of the elimination of members of society who are considered "undesirable", including, but not limited to, the homeless, criminals, street children, the elderly, th ...

History

The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on

National Sorry Day National Sorry Day, or the National Day of Healing, is an annual event that has been held in Australia on 26 May since 1998. The event remembers and commemorates the mistreatment of the country's Indigenous peoples as part of an ongoing process ...

on 26 May 2014, when

, 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 other

Aboriginal elder Australian Aboriginal elders are highly respected people within Australia and their respective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. An Elder has been defined as "someone who has gained recognition as a custodian of knowledge and l ...

s 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 Robert William "Bob" Bellear (17 June 1944 – 15 March 2005) was an Australian social activist, lawyer and judge who was the first Aboriginal Australian judge. He served as a judge of the District Court of New South Wales from 1996 until his d ...

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. Purchase of houses continued over time. 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 ...

(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. Munro said The Block is sacred, sovereign Aboriginal land. 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. 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 The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

. He said he still intends to put Aboriginal housing on The Block, but there is no funding to make it happen. 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."

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. 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. The Tent Embassy claimed victory later that month, when the federal government agreed to spent $70 million on 62 homes for Aboriginal people. 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.

References

{{Coord, 33.8908804, S, 151.1988926, E, display=title, scale:10000 2014 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures completed in 2014 Buildings and structures in Sydney History of Indigenous Australians Anti-indigenous racism in Australia Squats Squatting in Australia