Indigenous rights activists rally on Australia Day to protest British colonization legacy
Tens of thousands of Australians protested over the treatment of Indigenous people on Australia Day, the anniversary of British colonization of the country.
On Sunday, demonstrators rallied in Sydney, Melbourne, and other cities to decry the high incarceration rates, poor health, and historic persecution of the indigenous population of the country.
The national holiday marks the arrival of 11 British ships carrying convicts at Port Jackson in present-day Sydney on January 26, 1788.
For many activists, the day marked the beginning of a sustained period of discrimination and expulsion of Indigenous people from their land without a treaty.
As many Australians celebrate Australia Day with friends and family, the Indigenous peoples, who trace their ancestry back 60,000 years as the continent’s first inhabitants, for centuries, have faced dispossession of their lands, endured massacres, and suffered the removal of children from their families.
Activists for years have been urging for Australia Day to be moved and for a day of mourning on the holiday some call “Invasion Day.”
In Melbourne and Sydney the protesters held placards that read “abolish the date” and “no pride in genocide.”
“It is about changing the date, but it is more about making people aware of our injustices that have been since, and still ongoing since white man came,” said Indigenous woman and rights activist, Tammy Miller.
“We are still here fighting the same things that my grandparents were, but seeing all the people here makes me so proud,” she added.
In the run-up to Australia Day, protesters poured red paint over a statue of British explorer James Cook in Sydney, toppled a monument of 18th-century colonialist John Batman in Melbourne, and daubed a war memorial in the city with the words: “Land Back.”
A Resolve Strategic survey published on Friday showed that support for the holiday date has grown among Australians over the past two years from 47 percent to 61 percent.
Attitudes towards the holiday have hardened since a constitutional referendum on indigenous rights reforms was heavily defeated on October 14, 2023.
An estimated 3.8 percent of Australia’s 26 million people are Indigenous, official data shows.
Indigenous people still have a life expectancy of eight years shorter than other Australians, higher rates of incarceration, more youth unemployment, and poorer education.
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