Aboriginal Embassy, 50th Anniversary March, Canberra 26 January 2022. Photo: Jane Morrison. This march began from the National Film and Sound Archive, in the precinct of the Australian National University, where the July 1972 protest marches, supporting Aboriginal land rights, sovereignty and the Aboriginal Embassy, started. The above photograph was taken as the 2022 50th Anniversary march made its way along Commonwealth Avenue, Canberra towards New Parliament House where a rally was held before returning to the Aboriginal Embassy in front of Old Parliament House.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Dan Bourchier, interviewed Ghillar Michael Anderson on 26 January 2022 about how the Aboriginal Embassy protest site got its name and why he, Billie Craigie, Bert Williams and Tony Coorey, made their historic trip to Canberra 50 years ago on 26 January 1972. Mr Anderson is the last surviving member of the “Founding Four”, who set up the original Aboriginal Embassy under a beach umbrella on the lawns opposite Old Parliament House, Canberra on 26 January 1972. Bourchier’s story also follows some of the many protests by Aboriginal people before and since the establishment of the Embassy and the reasons for them:
As many Australians believe, the Aboriginal Embassy is as relevant today, if not more so, than it was in 1972.