Arrived home from Canberra about an hour or so ago. When we left this morning, we really didn't know what to expect in light of the reports that the Territories Minister, Ian Macdonald. intended to remove the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Even the late news on Monday night foreshadowed that there would be demonstrations and protests. We arrived at the Embassy by about noon and found everything very peaceful despite a news vehicle and camera and several newsprint reporters being conspicuous, there was no evidence of any demonstrations. I don't, of course, know what, if anything, happened before we arrived. There was a petition calling on Ian Macdonald to abandon his intention to close down the embassy and one to the UN, calling on that organisation to step in and stop the genocide in Australia of Indigenous peoples. (Just found out from the news that there was a demonstration and a healing ceremony to protest the intended removal of the Tent Embassy in the morning. Also, someone climbed to the roof of the old Parliament Buildings and hung the Australian flag upside down as a protest against the treatment of Aboriginal peoples and hung the Aboriginal flag over the front of the building.) Unfortunately, we were not there early enough. Darn! The afternoon was spent in congenial company with a barbecue and a concert. Very many people came, signed the petitions and stayed for a while before drifting off again.. One tour bus of Asian tourists abandoned the intended tour of the old parliament buildings and, instead, had the history of the Aboriginal tent embassy explained to them and stayed a while to listen to the music. The concert broke up with a thunderstorm threatening in the late afternoon. Trudy ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
