Aboriginal elder convicted for reclaiming cultural symbolsGreen Left WeeklyApril 13, 2005Lara Pullin, CanberraArabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott appeared in the ACT Supreme Court on March 29-April 6 on charges of stealing a coat of arms.
On January 27, 2002, Buzzacott removed the metal Australian coat of arms from Old Parliament House, arguing that the Commonwealth had never asked permission of Aboriginal peoples to use the totem animals Emu and Kangaroo in the coat of arms.
Buzzacott said he was compelled to do this as an Arabunna elder and a custodian of cultural heritage. Initially police asked Buzzacott to return the coat of arms, but later charged him with theft.
This is the first significant case since a domestic law on genocide was created in 2002 by the Australian parliament in order to gain admission to the International Criminal Court. Defence counsel Len Lindon explained how the case highlights one of the definitions of genocide — deliberate, continuing psychological harm to a race of people, through both the misappropriation of cultural objects without any treaty or agreement, and the use of these objects to oppress (coats of arms are originally items of identifying opponents in battle).
Wiradjuri elder Neville “Chappy” Williams told Green Left Weekly: “The prosecutor Mr White speaks about the crown coat of arms, the kangaroo and emu, but this is about kinship for us, and culture, which is inherited and handed down through the generations. Our cultural objects are the footprints of our ancestors, who walked the land from when time began.”
On April 5, police conducted a violent military-style assault on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy to arrest Buzzacott. This was the latest in a long list of attacks by police on the embassy. In court, Lindon described the heavy-handedness of police as “a pattern of fearlessly and speedily and thoroughly prosecuting Aboriginal suspects, but when the suspects are police or presumably non-Aboriginal in relation to arson [at the embassy] nothing happens”.
According to Williams, “We were actually in ceremony at the sacred fire when the police decided to break through and take Uncle Kevin. They had waited for hours until it was dark, and about 40 of them, all armed with guns, with at least 10 from the tactical response group, violently raided us.”
The police refused to allow an Aboriginal person to stay with or visit Buzzacott, who was in poor health, in violation of the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody recommendations.
According to Lindon, “the charging of Mr Buzzacott was really an attempt to shut down the protest and is part of an ongoing effort to get rid of the Aboriginal Embassy by direct or indirect means”.
After four-and-a-half hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Buzzacott was given a 12-month good behaviour bond.
Buzzacott and Linden intend to appeal the case in the High Court, and transcripts of the trial will be sent to the International Criminal Court.
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