Protesters remain at Brisbane tent embassy

THIS week has seen the end of Brisbane's Aboriginal tent embassy, with indigenous elders turning on each other over its unceremonious closure.

Council shut down the embassy in inner-city Musgrave Park on Tuesday, extinguishing a sacred fire under the watch of Aboriginal elders.

Hours later protesters tried to re-establish the embassy and fire but 50 police, council workers and firefighters moved in to douse the flame.

Three people were arrested.

Mayor Graham Quirk acted at the behest of 20 elders who say the embassy has lost its way amid alcohol abuse and violence.

The embassy was established in March and the fire was originally lit using an ember from the tent embassy in Canberra, in celebration of its 40 year anniversary.

A handful of supporters rekindled the fire again on Wednesday and guarded it, vowing not to move.

Mr Quirk said authorities would move in again but wouldn't say when.

"The elders, from whom I am taking advice, have given authority for any further embassies to be closed down," he said.

Des Sandy, who worked with council to close the embassy, said it had been hijacked by outsiders and some people may feel unsafe walking through the park.

"It has lost its way," he told AAP.

"I think it's an eyesore.

The activists who support the embassy claim council has listened to only hand-picked elders to push its own agenda.

One of the three arrested in the clashes, Wayne Wharton of the Kooma people, wants an investigation into the motives behind its closure.

"He (Mr Quirk) has caused irreparable damage to the Aboriginal community and their relationship with the broader community," Mr Wharton told AAP.

Judulu, who had a mattress at the embassy, said he would remain at the site until he died.

"The mob that's been going to the council, they don't sit down around the fire," he told AAP.

"They're actually nobody."

Natalie Lewis, of the Gubbi Gubbi people, regularly visits the embassy and admits there had been longstanding social issues involving young people at the park.

But she said elders had been working with them since the embassy began and change was happening.

She said the young people had nowhere else to go and drugs and alcohol were banned at the embassy, which she said was a special meeting place that offered hope to the Aboriginal community.

Ms Lewis, an adoptee, said she had found out who her parents and grandparents were while sitting around the fire.

"You learn cultural history here, you learn stories. That's how Aboriginal culture works," she told AAP.

"Everyone is connected, you will never be lost, ever.

"It brings hope and fire in the belly, that Aboriginal people can have strength together. We can live in our law."

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