Hello and thank you for downloading witness from the BBC World Service with me Ashley Byrne.

Today we're taking you back to 1972 and a protest in Australia that championed the cause of the

country's indigenous people.

It was on the 26th of January that year that four Aboriginal men arrived in Canberra, Australia,

with a beach umbrella, planted it into the grounds outside Parliament House and created what would become

known as the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

The intent of them going down there was to just set up a small protest that night so that when the Prime Minister got up the next

morning he would see this group of Aborigines on the lawn as of Parliament House.

Gary Foley was a young Aboriginal activist who joined the protest within the first few days.

The 26th of January is celebrated by White Australians as Australia Day, the day of the establishment

of Australia.

To Aboriginal people since the 1930s it has

represented what we call Invasion Day. It represents the destruction of our

society and for the Prime Minister to decide to make a statement rejecting Aboriginal land rights on that day

was waving a red flag at a bull.

The most active groups in Australia are the young.

The educated Aborigines who set up the Aboriginal

embassy, the main theme of the movement, is the right to own and control land.

Tony Curry was the one who came up with the idea of an Aboriginal embassy.

His rationale was the Prime Minister's statement has effectively declared us aliens in our own

land and if we're aliens in our own land we should have an

embassy like all the other aliens. Only our embassy will reflect the reality of the

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