Jenny Munro confronts Freudenstein

Courtesy of The National Indigenous Times

Amid claims of assault and phony complaints to police the power of more than 200 grass roots Aboriginal people and their supporters has seen the scheduled final demolition on Redfern’s iconic Block by the Aboriginal Housing Company postponed.

he Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC), under the control of Chief Executive Officer, Mick Mundine, had planned to demolish its now vacated offices and associated buildings on Monday so it could begin construction of a commercial development where Aboriginal housing had once been.

But hundreds of Aboriginal people and their supporters responded to a call to arms by going to The Block on Monday ready to stop the bulldozers from beginning the demolition work.

A brave few who, under cover of darkness scaled the walls of the AHC office and the Mundine gym, occupied the roofs as part of their plan stop the planned demolition work.

The Aboriginal Housing Company maintained a stony silence on what they intend to do now although Chief Executive officer, Mick Mundine did have another ugly confrontation with protesters. When he was asked to comment on what the AHC intended Mr Mundine refused to respond. It is clear the stand-off between Mick Mundine’s AHC and grass roots Aboriginal people will continue and equally clear Mr Mundine still intends to proceed with the demolition work. The only question is when.

Jenny Munro, one of the five Aboriginal grandmothers who established the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Sorry Day this year, said she had had a pre-dawn visit from the local police commander where she maintained the protesters would not leave The Block. Ms Munro said the determination of the protesters had the effect of ‘scaring the bulldozers away’.

“I think so,” Ms Munro said. “The reception they got this morning was a bit overwhelming for them so I hope they’ve gone away to rethink their tactics or realise they need to resolve this issue in a way that the community is satisfied with which also includes some redress. And that means Black housing on Black land,” Ms Munro said.

“Redfern Area Commander, Luke Freudenstein came to visit me before dawn and he said the bulldozers aren’t coming in today, so we’ve already had a moral victory. They were concerned about safety issues with people on the roofs; blocking traffic but obviously we’re not impeding any traffic.”

”Well, Mickey (Mundine) wasn’t able to do very much this morning and he’ll be able to do even less next time,” Ms Munro said.

Ms Munro and the Aboriginal community for whom The Block was once home are defending the site so it can one day be returned as Aboriginal low-cost housing as it was originally intended.

“Freudenstein’s still running the line this is the Housing Company’s land but we’ve occupied the land and will continue to. If it needs to go to court we will go to court and argue the issue on black land – black law, sovereignty,” Ms Munro said.

The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy residents have made multiple claims of harassment from the AHC and of unfair and racist treatment at the hands of the Redfern Area beat police.

“The Commander has tried to be fair and deal with it evenly but the problem is the police under his command are very arrogant and racist people and have continued Mickey’s intimidation down here telling us that Mickey owns the land, that Mickey can do this, Mickey can do that,” Ms Munro said.

Claims by Embassy residents of harassment appeared to be borne out with the arrival of police, fire and ambulance vehicles responding to bogus calls to a serious assault on the site. The Redfern Tent Embassy never made any of the calls and believe they came from persons associated with the AHC.

Long-time local resident, Lyall Munro Jnr said the actions of ‘racist police’ meant the community was ‘under siege’.

“Their commander comes here with good intentions and then we see their foot soldiers coming here with other intentions. That’s why the Aboriginal community are under siege in Redfern,” Mr Munro Jnr said.

New South Wales Police’s Redfern Area Commander, Luke Freudenstein held an urgent meeting with Embassy representatives on Monday and said he had no choice but to respond to emergency calls.

”We got three calls; I got three calls come through,” he told Jenny Munro. “They called fire brigade, they called ambulance, they called police about an assault,” he said.

Ms Munro insisted the calls were fake pointing out the site was packed with media cameras and any assault would have been filmed.

“Check the phone records up there at the office manager’s house,” she told Mr Freudenstein. It was a request he committed to follow up, saying if a false report was proven there would be consequences.

Mr Freudenstein told the National Indigenous Times the police response had been and had to be ‘by the book’.

“As we would anywhere else we sent our police down and I’ve spoken to people and I’m satisfied there hasn’t been an assault,” Mr Freudenstein said. “We will check to see who sent us down here for something that I couldn’t see was justified.”

When asked if action would be taken against anyone who had broken the law through a false report and by wasting police resources, the response was unequivocal. “Yes,” Mr Freudenstein said.

Ms Munro described Mr Freudenstein’s commitment as ‘a very welcome sign’.  But she said she expected him to deal with all of the harassment the Tent Embassy was enduring from people she described as ‘from the Housing Company’.

“We’re a peaceful protest and we’ll remain peaceful but when they bring vicious animals, pitbull dogs which are banned and that boy came right into the middle of the camp with the dog unleashed and got cheeky when we demanded he remove the dog,” she said.

Mr Freudenstein said he was not taking sides and wanted to deal openly and fairly with all involved. “All I want to do is make sure there is no breach of the peace, there is no breaking of any laws and I haven’t got an opinion either way,” he said.

The Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy supporters were also boosted when they received significant support from respected local Elder and MC of the official City of Sydney NAIDOC Week flag-raising ceremony, Aunty Bronwyn Penrith.

“The tents on The Block is timely,” she said. “I agree with the politics but I also think it is time we took direct action because of the dire housing situation we have here in Redfern and in the inner city.”

”The idea The Block would be empty of housing when there is such a great need, I think, is a travesty in my view. As I walk around the community, or people come to my place and we have conversations about the protest, most people agree with the protest, there is a groundswell of support,” Ms Penrith said.

Jenny Munro declared there would be no land grab, whoever was trying it on. “There is more than one Aboriginal person in this community, we are hundreds, not just Mickey Mundine,” Ms Munro said.

Protesters message to Commander Freudenstein

By Geoff Bagnall – courtesy of The National Indigenous Times

Who actually owns The Block? Well, for a short time at least the New South Wales Police Redfern Area Commander, Luke Freudenstein thought it was Mick Mundine until he was corrected by the real owners of the land – the people protesting under the banner of the Redfern Tent Embassy.

While addressing the media during Monday’s confrontation at The Block, Mr Freudenstein told the protesters he was just there to speak to ‘the owner of Aboriginal Housing’ about the Embassy mob trespassing on his land.

“I’ve got to speak to the owner of Aboriginal Housing to see what, if any, action they may want to take in relation to a trespass,” Mr Freudenstein told the gathering.

His comments surprised everyone attending and to be clear Mr Freudenstein meant what he actually said, the National Indigenous Times asked Mr Freudenstein who he thought was the owner of Aboriginal Housing; Mr Freudenstein answered “Mick Mundine”.

Mr Freudenstein was then told: “He’s the CEO of a Corporation, he’s not the owner of Aboriginal Housing”.

”Alright, alright, CEO, whatever you want to call it, mate. CEO, fine,” Mr Freudenstein said in response. Mr Freudenstein continued backtracking when asked: “So you look at him as the owner of this place?” and the Police Commander replied, “No, I don’t, the CEO, you’ve got it right”.

Jenny Munro was singularly unimpressed with the slip up.

“It’s just an indication of how little they know about the Black community and the Black organisations in the community. This is not Mick Mundine’s land, it belongs to all of us,” Ms Munro said.