Days are numbered for Aboriginal 'tent embassy'

[dArKeR]

For the dozen or so protesters at Canberra's Aboriginal 'tent embassy', these freezing winter mornings still start with coffee brewed over a campfire. But after more than 30 years, it is the last days for the site: the government has vowed to close it by the end of this month.

Since its establishment in 1972, the embassy has been a constant embarrassment to Australian governments. The standard complaint is that it is an eyesore, and it is certainly not the most polished monument in the capital.

There is a broken-down old caravan, twin huddles of tents, a rusting car covered in graffiti. In the green space between the two main camps, a sacred fire, surrounded by flags from sympathetic countries, has smouldered since 1998.

But it is the symbolic value that is most troublesome. Just metres from the entrance to Australia's old parliament building, the camp is an emblem of the sovereignty that local governments have denied Aboriginal people since European invasion in 1788.

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