Aboriginal politics (contemporary)

Aboriginal politics can refer to many things. Often it refers to protest actions undertaken by Aboriginal people, such as establishing and maintaining the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra since 1972, holding a Survival Day march in Sydney on 26 January 1988 amid the celebrations of the bicentenary of British settlement (or invasion: the terms are contested), ormore regionally and recentlyoccupying the Century Zinc mine site in northwest Queensland in 2002. It can also refer to more conventional and respectable forms of participation in public debate, such as Aboriginal people seeking elected office in parliament or local government, or the establishment and continued operation of Aboriginalspecific organisations for advocacy of Aboriginal interests and to conduct Aboriginal community affairs, including delivery of particular governmentfunded services to Aboriginal people. It can even refer to Aboriginal people advocating Aboriginal interests through their employment as public servants. These forms of political participation are not always as different or as separate from each other as they might at first appear and the Aboriginal people involved in them may appear in many different guises at different times. Aboriginal politics is thus a multifaceted, strategic activity (see Aboriginal politics (comparative) and Aboriginal politics (historical).