Australia Day 2018: ‘Invasion Day’ protest rallies call for date change

Protest rallies around the country have marked Australia Day as a “day of mourning’’ with calls for the date to be changed.

Protesters march on Australia Day in Melbourne’s CBD. Picture: Jason Edwards

Australia Day has been marked by “Invasion Day’’ protest rallies around the country, with calls for the date of the national day to be changed.

Victoria

One of the organisers of an Australia Day protest in Melbourne has told the crowd she wants Australia to burn to the ground.

Tarneen Onus-Williams, who introduced speakers during the rally at the steps of parliament on Friday, shouted to the crowd “f ... Australia” and “I hope it burns to the ground”.

Invasion Day rally on Australia Day, Melbourne. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Many protesters held Aboriginal flags and banners reading ‘Survival Day’ and ‘Day of Mourning’.

“I don’t want to feel good about change-the-date, I want justice,” another woman yelled across the crowd of thousands.

The huge gathering chanted “always was, always will be, Aboriginal land”. Flowers and artwork were stacked at the steps, alongside signs reading ‘pay the rent’ and a giant cardboard coffin daubed with ‘colonisation’. After the rally set off to weave its way through the city, a handful of right wing protesters arrived at the steps wearing Australian flags, but left without incident.

Melbourne kindergarten teacher Lily Ames, holding a sign, said she believed in equal rights.

“It’s really important that young people are aware of what happened and the reason why the government said ‘sorry’,” she told AAP.

Another protester, Pauline Williams, said she couldn’t understand why it was an issue to change the date.

“If there’s so many people that it offends, because it’s the anniversary of the invasion, my question is, why not change it?” “It’s a simple matter of getting a few heads of different state governments together and look at dates that would suit everybody and just do it.” Among the crowd was Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale and state Greens MP Lidia Thorpe, the first female Aboriginal elected to the Victorian parliament.

Senator Di Natale said there should be a conversation about choosing a new date. “We need to have a process to acknowledge why January 26 is not that day and to come together as a nation to talk about our history, to understand it more, to finally heal and then to come together,” he told reporters.

Ms Thorpe said Aboriginal people were sick of having to justify their existence in their own country.

“We want to be part of a nation that celebrates us, but not on the 26th of January,” she said.

There was an increased police presence around the outskirts of the rally, including mounted officers.

Tasmania

Hundreds of people have rallied on the lawns of Hobart’s parliament house, joining nationwide calls for the date of Australia Day to be changed. Banners reading ‘Survival Day’ were carried by protesters, who wove through the city’s streets on Friday morning.

“It’s not just Aboriginal people but our non-indigenous friends who know the difference between right and wrong,” Aboriginal activist Nala Mansell told the crowd.

New South Wales

The streets of Redfern were a sea of red, black and yellow Aboriginal flags as thousands gathered in Sydney to march for indigenous rights. Organiser Ken Canning from Fighting In Resistance Equally said he hopes the Invasion Day rally will draw attention to indigenous deaths in custody and was grateful for the support of non-Aboriginal Australians.

“The idea here is to engage the general public because our political spectrum around the country, except for maybe the Greens party ... they ignore the calls of Aboriginal people,” he told AAP ahead of the march on Friday. “It’s also important to raise the issues that are still ongoing in Aboriginal communities.

A Welcome to Country and a smoking ceremony is performed at the Wugulora Ceremony at Barangarooin Sydney. Picture: Getty Images

“We have the highest deaths in custody rates in the world per head of population, the highest imprisonment rates,” he said.

The march, which included many non-indigenous Australians, began at the Block in Redfern and wound through the streets to Victoria Park, where attendees dispersed into the Yabun indigenous culture festival.

Among the crowd were ex-AFL players Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin wearing Aboriginal flag T-shirts and snapping photos with fans.

Scores of police escorted the march through closed-off streets as onlookers and tourists stopped to film the event.

The rally is one of many across the country on January 26, as tensions again flared over the date to celebrate Australia Day.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge was adamant the campaign to change the date of Australia Day would be successful, despite indigenous Affairs minister Nigel Scullion recently saying that indigenous people have not raised the issue with him.

“Aboriginal people that I meet with — in Redfern, Moree, Tamworth, around this state — say January 26 is deeply disrespectful,” Mr Shoebridge told AAP. “They don’t buy into this sort of jargon.”

Meanwhile, beefed up counter-terror measures were in full swing today in Sydney’s CBD as half a million people visited the harbour to celebrate Australia Day.

Concrete bollards, X-ray bag check machines, makeshift security walls and police weidling semi-automatic weapons were onsite as part of what NSW Police have dubbed “Operation Australia”.

Revelers should have been greeted with clear views of the harbour as they stepped out from Circular Quay station, but were instead confronted with obstructive, white fencing.

Concrete bollards and police vehicles were stationed at sites deemed wide enough for the threat of a vehicle attack to be plausible.

There were 16 bollards surrounding the Bridge Street statue of Thomas Sutcliffe Mort (1816-1878), an English migrant regarded as a pioneer of Australian resources and industries.

Police helicopters also patrolled the crowd.

Increased security is a sign of the times on Australia Day at Sydney’s Circular Quay. Picture: John Grainger

South Australia

Several hundred people gathered on the steps of Parliament House in Adelaide, calling for the date of Australia Day to be changed. Aboriginal elder Tauto Sansbury told the crowd that recognising the hurt caused by celebrating on the day the first fleet arrived must be the start of a wider conversation.

“People have said there’s other issues to deal with, well no there’s not,” he said.

“This is the first one that breaks down the barriers. Then we can move onto all of the other things that are not right for Aboriginal people.” Mr Sansbury said he believed change was inevitable.

“January 26 means nothing to us except that we’ve got to break it down and get rid of it,” he told reporters.

“It’s the wrong date and the wrong time to celebrate.

“Just like the Berlin Wall went down, I believe we’ll knock this down too.” Greens MP Tammy Franks said changing Australia Day was about recognising Australia had a “really awful history”.

“This day is divisive. January 26 is actually about a NSW landing of the first fleet.

“We have a history here that we’ve forgotten and to have a future that is positive and uniting we need to talk about our history and come together.” Also unveiled at the protest was a poster designed by Aboriginal artist Elizabeth Close which hoped to encourage all Australians to start listening to the concerns of the indigenous community.

“It’s a call to action for everyone to sit down and genuinely and meaningfully listen to Aboriginal people and their elders about what they want with regards to Aboriginal rights,” she said.

“With regards to treaty, with regards to changing the date. All those things.”

ACT

Aboriginal protesters who marched through Canberra to the historic Tent Embassy have described Australia Day as a “day of mourning”.

The Canberra march culminated in a smoking ceremony at the 46-year-old embassy, just outside Old Parliament House.

There were cockatoo flags flying around the camp fire and some protesters carried signs stating, “Friends don’t let friends celebrate genocide”. “It’s a day of mourning,” fire keeper, Kumba, told reporters, wearing white ochre and a possum skin loin cloth.

He said January 26, 1788, marked the beginning of his people being massacred. “People say we need to come together - well, Australia Day needs to change,” Kumba said.

Police estimated 350 people turned out and praised crowd behaviour.

AAP

With Sofia Gronbech Wright