Sydney Invasion Day Protest Serves As “Painful Reminder” Of Colonial Australia

January 26, 2022 marked a half-century since the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was first set up in Canberra, and 234 years of Indigenous resistance.

— Content Warning: This article discusses abuse, and contains the names of Indigenous people who have died. —

The solemn date was commemorated on the steps of Sydney Town Hall to a backdrop of whirring light rail cars, police, and a sea of black, red, and yellow shirts. Organisers of the annual Invasion Day protest were happy with the turnout on Wednesday morning, as thousands of masked individuals showed up in solidarity, despite the Omicron variant continuing to dampen events across the city.

“Today is a national holiday. You’re told to have a beer and a barbecue, and celebrate the genocide of our people,” said MC and prominent Dunghutti, Gumbaynggirr, and Bundjalung activist Lizzy Jarrett. “I pay my respects to all First Nations here — to all of us feeling proud to be here today, and yet sad in knowing why we have to stand here.

“Why do we have to promote our invasion to make sure Australia sees us? To make sure our murders stop, the raping of our women, the stealing of our children, the poisoning of our land and rivers, the denunciation of our languages. The desecration of our culture is disgusting,” she said in her opening speech.

A ceremonial dance, didgeridoo performance, poetry, and speeches from the loved ones of people lost at the hands of police and prison guards were shared, before a silent march towards Australia Hall reminiscent of the 1938 Day of Mourning action. The crowd snaked through the CBD — strong and impassioned — before heading to Victoria Park for the 20th iteration of Yabun Festival.

Young Voices Platformed

Kyah Patten never met her uncle Eddie Murray, a rising rugby player who died in a police cell in Wee Waa, NSW under suspicious circumstances in 1981. “This year marks 41 years since my uncle Eddie was murdered,” the 28-year-old shared with the crowd. “My grandparents never got his belongings back — still to this day.”

“He was bashed to death, then hung in his cell to make out that he killed himself. Still to this day, 41 years later, we have not seen justice.”

Since the final report on the 1991 Royal Commission was handed down, there have been more than 500 deaths in custody, and no one held accountable. It was only in February last year that a corrective services officer was charged with manslaughter for shooting Wiradjuri man Dwayne Johnstone in 2019 — an unprecedented move in the justice system.

“This is our land, this is where we come from, and we’re still oppressed. People can say that Australia isn’t racist but we cop it everyday,” said Patten. “This system was built to keep us down, and it’s still keeping us down today.”

“Why are we still on these streets, still screaming on the microphone to be heard? Why are we still fighting for our lives? Why are we still angry? Why are we still hurt? Because we can’t heal with a system that is built to oppress us.”

While people continue to observe the date that the First Fleet landed on Gadigal land, January 26 serves as a painful reminder of the continued treatment and dispossession of Indigenous people every day of the year.

“To the non-Indigenous folk here today, I want to remind you that the intergenerational trauma our people have suffered is ongoing. We live it every day,” said young Yorta Yorta woman Amanda Morgan, speaking of the ramifications that racism and Stolen Generation policies continue to have on her family.

“And to the young mob out there, who don’t feel Blak enough, knowledgeable enough, or strong enough — this is colonial talk. Don’t let anyone dampen your spirit. Own your identity,” she said. “Make noise. Rock the damn boat. Stand your power. We are disruptors, now is our time.”

From Gadigal To Gaza

Palestinian activist Amal Naser also spoke of similar struggles around Nakba — the expulsion of over 700,000 people from their homeland after the State of Israel was declared in 1948.

“During these 74 years, we have been denied our right to return, our lands have been subjugated to an elite military occupation. Our people have been abused and killed. The colonial regime is practising the crime of apartheid against our people.”

“Every day is Nakba Day, like every day is Survival Day and a day of mourning for First Nations people,” said Naser. “We recognise that our movement is connected to, and supported by Indigenous peoples globally.”

Blak-Palestinian solidarity has most recently been witnessed in the Sydney Festival boycott, where Indigenous performers and creatives such as rapper Barkaa, journalist Amy McGuire, artist Karla Dickens, and dance group Marrugeku withdrew from the line-up in support.

In last year’s Sheikh Jarrah protests in Sydney and Melbourne, a similar front was shared between the two liberation movements, with Palestinian-Lebanese advocate Jeanine Hourani urging for Aboriginal sovereignty to be front and centre in conversations around Gaza in Australia.

“We must support colonised communities all around the world,” said Naser. “It is time to recognise all our struggles are intertwined…and in order to guarantee our freedom from Gadigal land to Palestine, and beyond, we must abolish all oppressive systems everywhere.”

50 Years On

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is known as one of the longest Indigenous protest sites in the world. In 1972, four men drove from Sydney to Canberra and placed a beach umbrella on the lawns opposite Old Parliament House, to protest the McMahon Government’s refusal to acknowledge Indigenous land rights and Native Title claims.

One of the activists, Billy Craigie, was asked by police how long he, Michael Anderson, Joe Williams, and Tony Coorey planned on staying for.“Until we get land rights,” said Craigie. As the story goes, he was met with laughter by the cop, and a comment that they might be waiting a long time. “Well, we’ll be here a long time then,” Craigie replied.

The protest event description hailed the five-decade milestone as an “earthquake moment in history that put the struggle for land rights on the international agenda”. It laid the foundations in a continued fight for sovereignty still seen to this day, and underscored the day’s tone with a glimmer of hope and resolve, amid the pain, anger, and suffering.

“Shoutout to the mob at the Tent Embassy in Canberra. It took the courage of four Uncles 50 years ago to take a stand and make a statement,” Jarrett told the crowd. “Without them four Uncles, and the willingness, the passion, the drive, and the commitment of the Tent Embassy, we wouldn’t even know what Invasion Day was.”

---

Millie Roberts is Junkee’s social justice reporter. Follow her on Twitter.