Culture

Invasion Day Protests Attract Tens Of Thousands As Calls Grow To #ChangeTheDate

"Always was, always will be Aboriginal land."

by Tom Clift  27 January 2017
invasion day rally

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Tens of thousands of people marched in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at Invasion Day rallies held yesterday in cities around the country.

Protesters, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, called on the government to recognise the suffering of Australia’s first peoples after their lands were stolen by European settlers, as well as the continuing inequality caused by the racist and paternalistic policies of subsequent administrations. Many also threw their support behind the growing push to #changethedate of Australia Day.

In Melbourne, a huge number (some reports estimate 50,000) gathered in the CBD, apparently dwarfing the crowds who gathered earlier in the day for the official Australia Day parade. Protesters marched from state parliament to Flinders Street Station chanting “no pride in genocide” and “always was, always will be Aboriginal land”. They then staged a sit-in at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Street where they listened to speakers including activist Celeste Liddle and indigenous actress Shareena Clanton.

At the Sydney protest a confrontation broke out with police, and a 20-year-old man — reported by BuzzFeed’s Allan Clark to be Dispossessed singer Birrugan Dunn-Velasco — was arrested after allegedly attempting to set an Australian flag on fire. A police spokesperson said it was an “isolated incident in an otherwise peaceful demonstration”.

Squandering whatever goodwill she may have garnered by not being Mike Baird, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters that there were more appropriate days to discuss changing the date, and added that she was “so disappointed” to hear about clashes with police.

“We have a democracy and everybody has the right to protest but today’s about everything that brings us together,” Berejiklian said. “I’m so disappointed that people couldn’t express themselves in a more appropriate way on such an important day for our community.”

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Deputy Prime Minster Barnaby Joyce also lashed out against protesters, defaulting to the familiar right-wing slogan “political correctness gone mad.”

“[I’m] sick of these people who every time, every time there’s something on, they just want to make you feel guilty,” Joyce told Sydney radio station 2GB. “They don’t like Christmas, they don’t like Australia Day, they’re just miserable gutted people and I wish they would crawl under a rock and hide for a little bit.”

However several politicians came out in support of changing the date. “We should change the date of Australia Day because it’s important that we make it a day we can all celebrate and embrace unity & respect,” tweeted Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.

In an editorial for The Australian, former Liberal MP Ian MacFarlane wrote that “as we celebrate Australia Day today and reflect on what a great nation this is, we should also pause to think about what we can do to make it greater. The starting point could be removing the barnacles of division over the date of Australia Day.”

“This is not about pleasing people, it is about uniting people,” the typically conservative MacFarlane wrote. “It’s about healing a wound, drawing a line, getting on with the really important issues facing our indigenous communities.”

In even more heartening news, A.B. Original’s protest song ‘January 26’ made it to number 16 on triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown.

“Australia Day is a very apprehensive day — and that’s putting it mildly — for the Indigenous people of our country,” Briggs told triple j. “There’s different points of view on what should be done and how things should be done but the main objective, and what we’re all striving for regardless of our points of view, is to move forward.”

It’s difficult to have an opinion on something if you haven’t been presented with the facts,” added Trials. “I feel like it’s our job to illustrate a lot of those facts and start those conversations or pick them up and then we move from there. I think that’s the only way we can start making some actual cogs turn and change.”