Chicka Dixon said that he had attended a political rally in 1946 where the initial idea and inspiration for the Embassy was raised by Jack Patten, President and co-founder of the Aborigines Progressive Association.

Patten had called for an Aboriginal mission station to be placed in front of Parliament House, where the eyes of the world could see the plight of the land's First Peoples.

[2] Under this new legislation by the Coalition government, which had refused to recognise Aboriginal land rights or native title in Australia, Indigenous people would be granted leases.

They offered 50-year general-purpose leases for Aboriginal people which would be conditional upon their "intention and ability to make reasonable economic and social use of land", while reserving for the Crown rights to minerals and forestry.

[13][14] The beach umbrella was soon replaced by several tents and Aboriginal people, including activists such as Gary Foley, Isabel Coe, John Newfong, Chicka Dixon, and Gordon Briscoe,[10] and non-Indigenous supporters came from all parts of Australia to join the protest.

Michael Anderson resigned as High Commissioner for the embassy at this time as he wished to turn his attention to a voter registration among Aboriginal people in rural New South Wales.

[16] The demands were rejected, and following an amendment to the Trespass on Commonwealth Lands Ordinance 1932 (which made the occupation a squat which could then be evicted), police moved in without notice on 20 July 1972.

[18] During the first six months of its life in 1972 the Embassy succeeded in uniting Aboriginal people throughout Australia in demanding uniform national land rights, and mobilised widespread non-Indigenous support for the cause.

[2] Other people associated with the Embassy demonstration in 1972 include Gary Williams, Sam Watson (aka Sammy Watson Jnr), Pearl Gibbs, Roberta Sykes, Alana Doolan, Cheryl Buchanan (later partner of poet and activist Lionel Fogarty, and mother of six children[19]), Pat Eatock, Kevin Gilbert, Denis Walker, and Shirley Smith ("Mum Shirl").

[21] The Embassy also began to attract attention in the international press such as The New York Times and BBC News, and comparisons were made with apartheid in South Africa.

[18] For a short period in 1979, the embassy was re-established by Lyall Munro Jnr, Cecil Patten, and Paul Coe, as the "National Aboriginal Government" on Capital Hill, site of the proposed new Parliament House.

[27] The 30th anniversary was celebrated in January 2002, when at which time a group of Aboriginal elders, including Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, reclaimed the sacred totems of the kangaroo and emu (which come with cultural obligations) from the Australian Coat of Arms, which was put on public display in front of the ceremonial fire.

The National Congress of Australia's First Peoples planned a series of events over two days, to celebrate the struggle for Aboriginal land rights and the theatre of political protest.

[15] The ACT Government helped to fund the event, which included coachloads of attendees coming from the country, and a Skype session with Gary Foley on stage.

[25] What became known as the Australia Day 2012 protests occurred when Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott went to the Lobby Restaurant, close to the embassy site.

That morning Abbott had been asked whether he found the Embassy "still relevant" and he had replied "I think the Indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian and, yes, I think a lot has changed since then and I think it probably is time to move on from that".

At a separate event, a crowd was addressed by the only surviving member of the original embassy, Ghillar Michael Anderson, and early participant Cheryl Buchanan.

[2] It features interviews with Paul Coe, Gary Foley, Bobbi Sykes, Chicka Dixon, and Denis Walker, and music by King Stingray, Dan Sultan, Miiesha and others.

[48] Billy Craigie, Bertie Williams, Tony Coorey, and Ghillar Michael Anderson also appear in the film,[2] which celebrates their activism and asks the question why they are not better known today.

[50] Still We Rise has a special screening at ACMI in Melbourne on 18 December 2022 which includes a Q&A with Harvey and Gary Foley,[48] and is freely available to Australian viewers on ABC iview.

[8] The CEO of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Jamie McConnachie, sees the Tent Embassy as a kind of "anchor", which has "created a sea of activism in their communities and beyond".

[4]It's a powerful symbol that has left a legacy to remind all Australians that it took four men sitting under an umbrella to heighten an awareness of many of the challenges that exist within the Aboriginal communities across the geographic diversity of this nation.