Still We Rise (2022)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still We Rise is a documentary film which premiered on Australian television (ABC) in 2022.

 

The topic is the aboriginal tent embassy which was established on the lawn in front of the old parliamentary building in Canberra in 1972.

 

The timing is significant. This film premiered in 2022 in order to mark and celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the tent embassy. It is the longest continuous protest for indigenous land rights in the world.

 

The purpose of the tent embassy is to draw attention to the fact that the first nations of Australia were driven from their land when the white community began its invasion of the continent in 1788.

 

The people who created the tent embassy wanted the Australian government and the white community to accept the fact that aboriginal people had a right to the land on which they lived.

 

At first, the government showed patience. The politicians assumed the activists would soon get tired of sitting in the tent. They allowed them to stay there.

 

The demonstration began in January 1972. In the southern hemisphere, January is the warm summer.

 

The politicians assumed the cold weather in May and June and July would force them to give up.

 

They were wrong. The activists were serious. They were deeply committed to their cause.

 

They were conducting a peaceful demonstration hoping to draw attention to a serious problem.

 

They wanted to be heard. They wanted the politicians to listen to them.

 

When the politicians realised the tent embassy was not going to disappear by itself, they decided to act: the tent embassy had to go!

 

Members of Parliament enacted a law which allowed the police to remove the tent embassy and the demonstrators using any means necessary.

 

The demonstrators were asked to move. When they refused, the police used violence to remove them. The demonstrators were arrested and the tent embassy was destroyed.

 

But this was not the end of the matter. Because the tent embassy became a part of the political battle between the right wing and the left wing of Australian policy.

 

When right-wing politicians had the tent removed, left-wing politicians (the Australian Labor Party) declared that the tent should be allowed to stay, because the aboriginal demand for land rights was not unreasonable.

 

Over the years, the embassy has been established and removed more than once. It has had an almost continuous presence since 1972. In 2022, it had existed for 50 years.

 

Still We Rise covers the amazing history of the tent embassy.

 

This story deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well. The director uses archive footage and interviews with people who have followed the case for a long time.

 

If you are interested in the history of Australia – in particular the question of aboriginal land rights – this film is definitely something for you.

 

It is highly recommended.

 

SOME BASIC INFORMATION

 

** Director: John Harvey

** Run time: 55 minutes

 

A REFERENCE

 

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy

Edited by Gary Foley, 

Andrew Schaap and Edwina Howell

(2013)

 

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Still We Rise

A documentary film

which premiered on 

Australian television (ABC) in

2022

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Setting up the tent embassy 

in Canberra

in 1972

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Gary Foley

(born 1950)

Aboriginal Australian activist

Co-founder of the tent embassy

This picture was taken in 1972

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