Billy Davo Craigie (born c. 1953 - August 1998) was an Aboriginal Australian activist. He was one of four co-founders of the

Aboriginal Tent Embassy The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation site as a focus for representing the political rights of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. Established on 26 January (Australia Day) 1972, and celebrating ...

in 1972, the longest continuous protest for Indigenous land rights in the world. Craigie grew up in Moree and was believed to be of the Kamilaroi people. Craigie, along with Bert Williams, Michael Anderson and Tony Coorey, sent up a Tent Embassy on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra in response to the government's Australia Day statement on land rights. The statement proposed general purpose leases and not land rights; it required people to intend and be able to make "economic use of the land," and excluded forestry and mining rights. This was unacceptable to the activists who wanted to be granted the rights to their ancestral lands. A documentary movie, ''Ningla A-Na'', was filmed about the protest in 1972. The activists held a press conference and Craigie said they would maintain the space "indefinitely until we can work out our own Aboriginal government and maybe fill up the rest of the building with elected members from our own, Indigenous, sovereign nation." They along with a few others were arrested for trespassing but others came in to take their places. Craigie gave evidence at the trial stating that the land the government had claimed was sacred and that paintings and rock arrangements which would have indicated its status had been moved and disrupted when Canberra was settled. In 1979, along with Cecil Patton, he stole the paintings of Aboriginal artist

Yirawala Yirawala (c. 1897 – 17 April 1976) was an Aboriginal Australian leader, labourer and bark painter, most known for his artistic works. He was born in the Northern Territory, which at the time was responsibility of the state of South Australia ...

from a commercial gallery which was run by a white man. Their defense was that since they were Aboriginal, and the paintings were Aboriginal-community owned, they believed they could take them legally to protect them. The case went to trial and the two were found not guilty. In 1980 he participated in a protest of the Brisbane Commonwealth Games. In 1988 he protested the publication of John Molony's book ''The Penguin Bicentennial History of Australia'' by tossing a copy of the book into

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane ...

. Craigie's grandson, William Hickey, is a basketball player.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craigie, Billy 1998 deaths Australian Indigenous rights activists History of Indigenous Australians