Australian flag set on fire as protests kick off in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra
Protesters burned Australian flags as they called to “abolish the monarchy” hours after the Queen was remembered in a national memorial service.
A mural of the Queen in Sydney has been painted over with the colours of the Aboroginal flag.
The street art near Sydenham train station in the city’s Inner West was painted by Sturat Sale following Her Majesty’s death earlier this month.
But it is now daubed in red, yellow and black paint.
It comes as protesters set fire to Australian flags just hours after a national memorial service was held to mourn the Queen.
Anti-monarchists took to the streets in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra on the one-off public holiday on Thursday with calls to “abolish the monarchy”.
Wild scenes have come out of the protests, with some choosing to burn Australian flags to send a message to the Commonwealth.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Brisbane’s CBD just after midday where they marched from the Queen Victoria Statue on Williams Street through to the Eagle Street Pier precinct.
“Our message to England and the Monarchy is to f**king burn,” one speaker said to the crowd through a megaphone.
Following the speech, the group set a newspaper alight before using it to burn an Australian and British flag.
Protesters were wearing shirts that said “abolish Australia Day”.
A large sign carried by the group read: “No kings, no cops, no capitalists, socialist alternative”.
As the group walked back through the city they chanted: Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.”
Meanwhile, hundreds in Sydney gathered near Town Hall with calls to abolish the monarchy.
One sign read: “Wake up ‘Straya’! It’s time! Aboriginal land.”
Police guarded George Street in the Sydney’s CBD as speakers addressed the crowd from the steps of Town Hall.
“Sovereignty never ceded,” another sign read.
Another protester held a sign which said: “Brutal British colonisation prevails”.
“My Kings and Kweens are Blak,” another read, with a photo of the Aboriginal flag.
One woman in Sydney marched with a sign which said: “They r**ted their own family while they uprooted ours”.
Pro-monarchy supporters were also in attendance at the Sydney protest, standing still while holding a British flag and photo of Queen Elizabeth II.
Hundreds of Melburnians braced the sun on the one-off public holiday to attend the rally in the city’s CBD.
Senator Lidia Thorpe led the crowd on Thursday by dipping her hand in red paint and speaking into a microphone in front of Flinders St station.
“The crown has blood on their hands,” Ms Thorpe yelled to the crowd.
“Our people are still dying in this country every single day, the crown boot is on our neck and we are sick of it.
“We are here to fight for our rights as the first people of these lands, we have never ever, ever, conceded our sovereignty.”
The crowd cheered and clapped as the Indigenous senator addressed the rally in front of a burned Australian flag.
Her t-shirt read: “Another day in the colony”.
Ms Thorpe yelled to the crowd that the people she works with “rule their lives through the colonial violence that the crown brought here”.
“Do you know... well you don’t know because the media don’t report it, how many deaths in custody we have to deal with every day in our lives?” she said.
“Do you know that we’ve had over 20,000 Aboriginal children that have been stolen in 2022 and you want to mourn the coloniser who brought the pain and the genocide here to our people?”
Ms Thorpe said Thursday was “D-day” to help “mature the country” tell the truth and give Indigenous people back what was stolen.
In the days leading up to the public holiday, notices for the protest said the groups will decry past atrocities and the ongoing impact of British colonisation in Australia.
Activist groups Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) and Fighting In Solidarity Towards Treaties are just some who organised demonstrations.
“This is a stance against the continued crimes committed against marginalised First Nations, black, brown and Asian communities. We do not support benefactors or Stolenwealth (sic) and demand justice, truth and accountability for all. Justice for all,” WAR wrote on Facebook.
“This is a demonstration against racist colonial imperialism.”
The protests began just hours after hundreds of Australian leaders and politicians gathered in Parliament House in Canberra to mourn the Queen with a memorial service and minute of silence.
While many praised the longstanding monarch’s 70-year reign, indigenous leaders say the monarchy represents a violent history.
“The Commonwealth has blood on its hands. The death of Elizabeth II has sparked ongoing calls for justice for the dispossessed,” Sydney protest organisers wrote on Facebook.
“First Nations sovereignty has never been ceded. Blackfullas here in so-called Australia and around the world will be out in protest.
“We demand a ceasefire to the continuing war against the planet and its custodians! We demand an end to inherited power and stolen wealth.”
Thousands of Australians showed their interest in attending one of the protests.
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