Redfern's Tent Embassy Is Ready to Fight for the Block

Indigenous leaders in Sydney have called on all Australians, white and black, to rally around around the tent embassy situated at the iconic Redfern housing project known as the Block. The makeshift camp was established in May last year in opposition to plans by the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) for a 70 million dollar three-stage development. The complex will comprise commercial and retail spaces, a gallery, accommodation for 154 international students, a childcare space, a gymnasium, and affordable units and townhouses for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander families. With construction crews looming, the protesters were given their marching orders last Monday.

Part of the controversy stems from disagreements over the number and construction dates of homes earmarked for Indigenous residents. But a large part of the issue centres on the AHC and its CEO Mick Mundine, who leading Indigenous elders from the area claim mismanaged the body and rode it into debt.

"All the problems that came to this place came under his watch," says local elder Jenny Munro, a Redfern resident of 41 years and a University of NSW Arts and Law graduate. "The destruction of the community, the dysfunction, the drugs, the notoriety. And that was because of his incompetence and chronic mismanagement of the organisation. How can you trust him again?"

Solomon Bellear, a founding member of the AHC, agrees. "He's just looking for his next payday for him and his mob," he says of Mundine, whose development proposal includes an upgrade to a gym owned by his brother Tony, father of professional boxer Anthony. "I want to see the AHC become a successful organisation, not to be sold to developers," he says.

In addition to being an AHC founder, Solomon was also the foreman who gave Mick Mundine his first job with the company as a labourer some 40 years ago. He says he has no issue with Mundinepersonally, but there is no getting around the fact Redfern's Indigenous community has been deliberately cut out of discussions about the future of the Block — a parcel of land in the heart of Sydney bought back by Indigenous Australians in 1973 during the Whitlam administration.

"I have no gripe with Micky whatsoever," he affirms. "My gripe is there are aboriginal people in the south Sydney district who are homeless and we have a block there that could meet the needs of 65 houses."

Victoria-based activist, academic, writer, and actor Gary Foley — formerly of the Block — is less forgiving. He labels Mundine "disingenuous", saying "he was not involved in developing the original vision of the Housing Co-operative in the early 1970s and therefore should not be in a position to determine the future of the Block today." He calls what the AHC is proposing today a "disgusting perversion" of the original concept of providing low-cost housing for Redfern Aboriginal people. "That is what the Whitlam government originally provided the resources for, and that is what should be the priority today," he said.

Jenny Munro, who has been a stalwart of the Redfern tent embassy since day one, puts it down to gentrification, and she's not happy about that. "Gentrification is simply white man's code for social cleansing, just like dispersal was code for massacre", she said. Jenny will continue to protest.

"Greed, like all the vices of mankind, does not know colour," says Munro, who is currently awaiting the outcome of an Apprehended Violence Order taken out against what she calls Tongan "goons" in the employ of Mundine.

"It's a sad situation when greed is higher priority than compassion. I think it's time for Sydney to take a stand against those values. I think its overdue, a long time overdue. We've managed to be able to live together for a very long time in this city. I don't think that should stop. I think it should be allowed to evolve at its own pace rather than being forced into corners or directions it doesn't want to go," she says.

Adding to the general air of mistrust surrounding the project is the fact that the contract for redeveloping the Block has been awarded to Redfern-based developer Deicorp. In 2012, Deicorp was criticised for marketing messaging that cast doubt over their sensitivities towards the Indigenous community.

The statement, which appeared on the website of a firm it hired to spruik another Redfern development to local and Asian investors, read: "The aboriginals have already moved out, now Redfern as the last virgin suburb close to the city, it will have great potential for the capital growth in the near future." The text was quickly pulled after it was flagged by the Australian newspaper.

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