MELBOURNE, Australia – Those who celebrate Australia Day, the country’s national holiday, associate it with barbecues and pool parties. But for those protesting this, it is a reminder of the continent’s brutal colonization.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people marched through Australia’s main cities in opposition to the holiday, which they call Invasion Day. It is a striking reformulation of the legacy of the arrival of the British 233 years ago, which set in motion centuries of oppression by the indigenous peoples.
Year after year, these protests grew and gained political momentum, and those on Tuesday were reinforced by the global Black Lives Matter movement. Here’s a look at this contentious day.
What is Australia Day?
Australia Day, 26 January, marks the date when a British fleet sailed to Sydney Harbor in 1788 to start a penal colony. The sailors raised a flag in a land that the British described as “Terra Nullius” (no man’s land), although Aborigines inhabited the continent for at least 65,000 years.
The holiday was officially recognized in 1818, and has been celebrated nationally since 1994. It occurs during the summer in the southern hemisphere, so many Australians spend the day at the beach or with family and friends.
Since the start of the holiday, however, indigenous Australians have been excluded from the celebrations. In 1888, when Sir Henry Parkes, the father of the Australian federation, was asked about how First Nations people could be involved, he noted that it would only serve to “remind them that we stole them”.
What are protesters asking for?
Australians protesting the public holiday argue that it not only excludes Aborigines and inhabitants of the Torres Strait islands, but also actively celebrates the day their lands were taken.
Since 1938, protesters have periodically celebrated the national holiday with a day of mourning. (That same year, several Aboriginal men were forced to participate in a reenactment of the British landing.)
Two Aboriginal activists, Jack Patten and William Ferguson, wrote at the time: “We, representing Aborigines, now ask you, the reader of this call, to stop amid your joys of the 16th century and honestly ask yourself if your ‘conscience’ Are you clean about the treatment of Australian blacks by Australian whites during the 150-year period of history that you celebrate? “
Since then, the demonstrations have involved protests, rallies and marches at the House of Parliament in Canberra. Protesters called for a series of changes, from recognizing Australian Indians in the country’s constitution and creating a treaty between them and the Community, to reducing the high rates of incarceration and deaths of indigenous people in custody.
Previously, activists pressed for a change in the date of Australia Day – suggestions included January 1 (the date Australia was federated), the fourth Friday in January (because it would be a good long weekend) or 8 May (due to the abbreviation M8 sounds like “companion”)
But this year, the message has shifted more towards the abolition of the day.
“There is a growing awareness and growing solidarity across the world among indigenous peoples everywhere,” said Lidia Thorpe, the first aboriginal senator elected in the state of Victoria. “There is a revolt.”
What happened today?
On Tuesday, thousands of people took to the streets in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin and Perth in protest. They wore Aboriginal flags slung over their shoulders, sang and held up signs with the words “Pay the rent”, “Cancel the date” and “There is no pride in the genocide”.
Before dawn on Tuesday, the Sydney Opera House lit your candles with the artwork of Frances Belle-Parker, an indigenous artist, while an Aboriginal flag was flown alongside the Australian flag on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
“Solidarity is the key,” said Frankie Saliba, an activist, as he marched through central Melbourne holding a painted sign that said “Landback”, referring to the movement to return land to its original indigenous owners.
Another protester, Emily Hart, 11, said she expected more of her colleagues to be involved in the protests. “We need to recognize that this is not our land,” she said.
Although the protests were largely peaceful – with masked activists marching in groups of 100 in Melbourne to adhere to the rules of social detachment – some protesters clashed with the police and were arrested in Sydney after coronavirus regulations were violated, prompting organizers to cancel the rest of the event.
The organizers in Perth and Hobert said the attendance was the biggest they had ever experienced.
Why not change the date?
Support for the Invasion Day movement has grown steadily, even traditional organizations like Cricket Australia removing the name “Australia Day” from their promotional material.
Still, less than a third of Australians say Australia Day should be postponed from January 26, according to a recent survey conducted by Ipsos. Australia’s conservative political leaders have expressed the same opinion, sometimes minimizing the abuse of Aboriginal people.
“When those 12 ships appeared in Sydney years ago, it was also not a particularly bright day for the people who were on those ships,” Scott Morrison, the country’s prime minister, told reporters last week. At a ceremony in Canberra on Tuesday, Mr Morrison added that Australians “overcame” their “brutal start”.
Australian communications minister Paul Fletcher criticized the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for including the term “Invasion Day” in the headline of an article, along with the formal name of the holiday, pressuring the national broadcaster to remove the words.
Marcia Langton, an anthropologist and professor of indigenous studies at the University of Melbourne, called Morrison’s comments “cretins” and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of indigenous Australians that she and others estimate lost their lives in the decades after European colonization.
“The arguments for Australia Day are now clearly morally and intellectually flawed,” she said. “It is no longer a national day; it’s a day of division. “
Yan Zhuang contributed reporting from Sydney, Australia.