Leah House

The ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment took place on Ngambri and Ngunnawal Land, where the legacy of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, as one of the longest ongoing protest sites for Indigenous rights, is impossible to ignore. First Nations here in so called australia have resisted colonisation for over two centuries.

Where we are today, on our timeline of colonisation, is different to our Palestinian siblings. We recognise deeply where Palestinians are at because we also carry our trauma through each generation. Not by choice, but by inheriting our people’s pain and we carry that pain and trauma with us along with our resilience and capacity to survive our own occupation. So we recognise and we fight for Palestine because we see ourselves in the Palestinian struggle. We understand that our liberation is entwined with Indigenous liberation across the globe and will accept nothing less.

I visited the Encampment whenever I wanted, popping over on my lunch breaks during the week or in the evenings for chats and dinner, then on the weekends for the rallies. I was regularly invited to speak to students. To be honest, the moments that stood out for me the most were the meals that some beautiful aunties made to feed everyone. I found a sense of familiarity while amongst those women who cooked for us daily. The feeling of safety and love from the local community who gathered to support the Encampment reminded me of being with my aunties and among family. At the time of the Encampment, the caretakers of the Tent Embassy who visited were not from Canberra. They were a long way from home, they were from far North Queensland. So when they were invited to the Encampment, I know it meant a lot to them to make friends, connections, share a meal and a dance with the Encampment students and staff.

I believe an opportunity was missed to really collaborate and further build on relationships that could have been strengthened between folk that have showed up at the ANU Encampment and are passionate about Indigenous liberation and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. I hope to see more inclusive practices and openness to sit (often in discomfort) with and learn from mob that actively resist colonisation here.

I was also there during the stand off with the police. When the university called the police on the Encampment on reconciliation day. I found the university response disgusting. I do not support reconciliation or its performative attempts to absolve so called australia of their continued occupation, genocide and international war crimes, on these lands. The decision to act on reconciliation day shouldn’t be surprising though. This colony can sit with the comfort of distance in time and reflect somewhat on how this nation came to exist and make a public holiday of it but refuses to acknowledge and act on the literal genocide of Palestine occurring right now. Australia wants to reconcile with their genocidal ‘past’ and at the same time actively partake in multiple genocides today.

I believe the Encampment along with direct actions and solidarity rallies and the continued pressure being applied to this government and the voices refusing to be silenced are powerful and cannot be downplayed in their impact. Every student that showed up and put their bodies, their education and/or employment, their mental health and well-being on the line made a difference. There can be an overwhelming sense of defeat when you’re up against this colony and its institutions but it’s important we don’t paralyse ourselves with that. Our struggles continue.

From the river to the sea,
always was always will be.