The culling of kangaroos on military land in Canberra seems ironic given that the kangaroo is one of two native animals on the Australian coat-of-arms. As many citizens equate the military with the country's defence the cull is symbolic of an attack similar to the flag burning that has earned the ire of many Australians. It is problematic having a living national symbol.
People have objected to the cull on several grounds. The charge that killing the animals is inhumane seems to have been answered adequately by RSPCA approval of the methods being used. However, there is a symbolic level on which the cull represents a national shame.
Not surprisingly, members of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy have been prominent in drawing attention to the unique position of the kangaroo in Australian life. It is not surprising either that they have attempted to save the kangaroos by claiming sovereignty over the land being used by the military.
While the linear reasoning might have made their task almost impossible, all Australians should recognise an element in this cull that goes beyond sentimental attachment to national symbols.
Aboriginal activists established the Tent Embassy near the Old Parliament House to draw attention to the status of indigenous people as outsiders. When the parliament moved to its new premises in 1988, the Embassy attempted to claim the old building as unoccupied crown land, and members were incarcerated for trespass.
In 2000, the Embassy moved to a park in Sydney, a situation convenient for overseas visitors to the Olympics. The local council attempted to have the campers moved on, as though they were vagrants.
Despite the recent apology delivered to the Stolen Generations by Prime Minister Rudd, the Embassy still has a role. Indigenous people still face both formal and practical disadvantages.
Some years ago, one member of the Embassy told me of the connections that indigenous people have with the kangaroo. She pointed out that one of the most devastating effects of European settlement was occasioned through fencing.
Fences exclude Aboriginal people from their traditional areas and so disrupt their cultural practices. But they have also disrupted the normal patterns of kangaroo movement. Consequently, kangaroos came to be regarded as enemies by farmers and pastoralists and, eventually, by motorists.
There seems to be something pernicious about an action that confines kangaroos to a small area, then refuses to move them elsewhere and finally decides that