Thousands of people have demonstrated in cities across Australia, rallying for Indigenous peoples’ rights and protesting against marking their country’s national day on the day the British colonial fleet entered Sydney Harbor more than two centuries ago.
In Sydney, the capital of New South Wales – Australia’s most populous state – large crowds gathered in the city’s central business district on Thursday, with some people carrying Aboriginal flags and chanting “Australia Day is dead”.
Indigenous activist Paul Silva said the national holiday – which some refer to as “Day of the Invasion” – should be abolished.
“If someone breaks into your home, murders your family and steals your land, I can 100 percent guarantee that the family will not celebrate that day,” he told the crowd.
“I don’t know how it makes sense for a citizen of this country to go out and have a barbecue and celebrate genocide,” he said.
Indigenous poet Lizzie Jarrett said Sydney was “ground zero for indigenous genocide”.
“Do you think we’re angry? Wouldn’t you be mad?” she asked the crowd.
Demonstrators as far as the eye can see #InvasionDay Rally on Gadigal Country (Sydney) #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe #SovereigntyNeverCeded pic.twitter.com/SKjtKZCys9
— Zac Crellin (@zacrellin) January 26, 2023
Indigenous Australians have lived on the Australian continent for at least 65,000 years, but have suffered widespread discrimination and oppression since the arrival of the British in 1788. Australian historian Lyndall Ryan estimates that more than 10,000 Indigenous people have been killed in 400 different massacres since the British colonization began.
Around 880,000 of Australia’s 25 million inhabitants currently identify themselves as indigenous.
They were banned from voting in some states and territories until the 1960s, and they lag behind other Australians on economic and social indicators, in what the government calls “rooted inequality”.
Their life expectancy is also years shorter than other Australians and they suffer disproportionately from suicide, domestic violence and are far more likely to die in police custody.
In the Australian capital, Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese celebrated Australia Day with a flag and citizenship ceremony, honoring the country’s indigenous people.
“Let us all recognize the unique privilege we have of sharing this continent with the world’s oldest continuous culture,” the prime minister said.
But while acknowledging it was a “difficult day” for Indigenous Australians, he said there were no plans to change the date of the holiday.
A moving Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony this morning in Canberra. pic.twitter.com/cP72s5Rj4f
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) January 25, 2023
An annual poll by market research firm Roy Morgan, released this week, found nearly two-thirds of Australians say January 26 should be considered “Australia Day”, broadly unchanged from a year earlier. The rest think it should be Invasion Day.
Amid the debate, some companies have introduced flexibility over how the holiday is observed. Australia’s largest telecoms company, Telstra, this year gave its employees the option to work on January 26 and take an extra day off instead.
“For many Aborigines, Australia Day is … a tipping point where lives have been lost, culture has been debased and connections between people and places have been destroyed,” Telstra Chief Executive Officer Vicki Brady wrote on LinkedIn.
Australia Day protests have also taken place in other Australian capitals, including Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.
Al Jazeera’s Sarah Clarke, reporting from the Brisbane rally, said momentum to scrap Australia Day had grown over the years.
“People here say this is a day of mourning,” she said. “They are gathering in protest at the celebrations of modern Australia on a day they believe there has been a major First Nations displacement. So this group is certainly increasing in number. Polls have shown that younger generations are increasingly supportive of this.”
People hold a banner as they take part in the annual ‘Invasion Day’ protest march through the streets of Sydney on Australia Day [Robert Wallace/ AFP]
This year’s holiday also comes as the centre-left Albanese Labor Party government plans a referendum on recognizing tribal peoples in the country’s constitution and calling for consultation with them on decisions affecting their lives.
The public will vote on the amendment, dubbed the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, in a binding referendum later this year.
The Constitution, passed in 1901, currently makes no mention of Indigenous Australians. And the proposal to recognize Indigenous Australians in the charter was a pledge made by the Labor Party in last May’s general election, ending nearly a decade of Conservative Liberal-National coalition government.
But changing the Constitution is difficult and requires a majority vote in a majority of states.
The feat has only been achieved eight times in 44 attempts since the association was founded in 1901.
A successful referendum would draw Australia level with Canada, New Zealand and the United States in formally recognizing indigenous peoples.
Some Indigenous Australians have also opposed the proposal.
Several people carried a banner at the Invasion Day rally in Sydney that read: ‘Vote no to the referendum. We deserve more than one vote.”
In Melbourne, Indigenous activist Uncle Gary Foley said “the voice” was only “cosmetic”.
“Like lipstick on a pig, it’s not going to address the deep underlying issues that still permeate Australian society and that key issue is white Australian racism,” he said.