Last November Ngunnawal elder Matilda House was involved in scuffles with tent embassy residents when she tried to extinguish the sacred fire and remove structures from the site. Like many indigenous bureaucrats, she feels the ramshackle campsite gives a bad image of Aborigines and wants to see it replaced. The residents have vowed to fight any attempt to move them on, but Tuckey says protests will not be tolerated.
"They will continue to be shifted until they stop going back there," he said.
But Darren Bloomfield, who has maintained the sacred fire since 1998, says: "We'll just keep coming back."
RSS