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Thousands of Australians protested on Friday to mark the anniversary of British colonization. Crowds across the country have called for the Australia Day holiday to be canceled or at least postponed to another date. Instead, some want a “day of mourning,” which they call “Invasion Day,” writes The Guardian.
Australia Day, which takes place on January 26, commemorates the arrival of the British fleet in Sydney Harbor in 1788. When the fleet arrived, the country was considered unoccupied, although the island continent had been occupied continuously by Aboriginal groups for more than 40 years was occupied for a thousand years. More and more Australians see this date as the day on which colonization began, accompanied by the mistreatment of Aboriginal people.
Speeches in major cities therefore reflected anger and despair over high rates of Aboriginal incarceration, deaths in custody and the forced removal of children from First Nations families. The meetings came several months after a proposal for Indigenous representation in parliament was overwhelmingly rejected in a national referendum.
The initiator of Victoria’s Invasion Day rally drew applause from the crowd outside Parliament to congratulate those who felled a statue of Captain Cook in St Kilda on Thursday. “This is big. I’m really proud of our city and I’m proud of the people who took action yesterday,” he said. Some participants in the rally in Melbourne held signs saying “The colony will fall.” the same phrase that activists had spray-painted on the base of the statue.
On Friday, Brooke Prentis, a Wakka Wakka descendant and Aboriginal Christian leader, attended a large rally in Brisbane. She explained that she bears no grudge against those who enjoy the day. “I love lamingtons, I love Barbie, I love lamb chops,” Prentis said, referring to common Australia Day foods and activities. “But the date must be seen as a day of mourning so that we can mature as a nation,” she described.
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