• Day 4

    Today, I went to Canberra, the capital city of Australia. It's Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. It's one of the most closest big towns near Sydney but it's still 280 km away from my last destination. I travelled by bus, and it took me hours, but it was worth it : I could see something I see now as a symbol of the Aboriginal presence in the country, of Aboriginal unity on land rights and sovereignty, but which also shows the discrepancy between them and the rest of the inhabitants. What am I talking about ? The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, a semi-permanent assemblage claiming to represent the political rights of Aboriginal Australians. It is made up of a group of activists, signs and tents that reside on the lawn of Old Parliament House in Canberra.

    Afficher l'image d'origine

    So, yes there's not much to visit, but the important thing is that it's not considered an official embassy by the Australian Government and its very existence has been difficult since its creation : it was removed several times and suffered from numerous attacks.

    I saw a few panels next to the tent but I wasn't really understanding why they were for. So I entered the tent and talked with the person who was inside, an Aborigine, and he explained me a few things about their fight and why they protest. What shocked me the most was the Story of the Stolen Generations, the children of Australian Aboriginal descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions from 1905 to 1969. I knew that story, but not in the details, and I had not been told this by someone linked to the Stolen Generations. It helped me to understand this with another point of view.

    But if Aboriginal people are still have to protest for such obvious things, that means the fight won't end soon and it saddens me a bit.


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