Australia: Aboriginal protesters explain motivations behind Canberra sit-in

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders protesting in the Marble Foyer at Parliament House in Canberra.

About 100 Indigenous people and supporters called for an end to fracking, coal mining and water sharing.

NITV, Feb. 13, 2019

Bradley Farrar had never been on a plane before he made the journey from the Northern Territory to Canberra to join a sit-in about environmental issues.

The clan leader of the Alawa tribe felt compelled to come and represent his people, who he says will suffer if planned gas fracking projects eventuate.

Huge crowds attend Invasion Day marches across Australia’s capital cities

by Calla Wahlquist, The Guardian, Jan 26, 2019

Scott Morrison has said 26 January 1788 was “pretty miserable” for his ancestor, in a speech defending the celebration of Australia Day, while tens of thousands of people joined Invasion Day marches around the country calling for the public holiday to be abolished.

‘People are starting to understand’: huge Invasion Day protest stuns Melbourne

Marching in Melbourne … Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

Activist Gary Foley tells a crowd of up to 60,000 that ‘if we keep mobilising these numbers, governments cannot ignore us’

Melbourne’s Invasion Day rally begins on the steps of Parliament House on Spring Street, 500 metres from where the city council has blocked off the route of the official Australia Day parade.

The events start at the same time, and until a few years ago only one was accommodated. Before 2015, the Invasion Day rally was seen as just a group of hardcore activists; they didn’t register in the minds of the flag-waving crowd that turned out to watch the official proceedings.

We killed it: Australia Day is officially dead

Thousands of protesters made history across Australia today with the largest nationwide Australia Day (Invasion Day) protests ever seen.

By Welcome to country, January 26, 2018

Protest numbers had been growing steadily in recent years but it was this year when everything came to a climax. In previous years protests were only publicised on social media in the lead up to Invasion Day. This year the mainstream media had no choice but to start telling the public about what was being planned.

Australia: Colonial statues vandalized on eve of Australia Day

Hot in pink: statue of Captain James Cook vandalized in Australia.

by Ryan Tennison and Christine McGinn, Herald Sun, Jan 24, 2018

A STATUE of James Cook in St Kilda and the Burke Wills sculpture in the Melbourne CBD have both been defaced on the eve of Australia Day.

The sculpture of Captain James Cook, erected in the Catani Gardens in 1914, has had pink paint dumped over it and big red letters marked at the base saying “No Pride”.

The statue of Captain Cook is a replica of the one at his birthplace at Whitby in England.

In reclaiming our history of resistance, we can also revitalise decimated languages

On the bicentenary of the colonisation of New England, IndigenousX host Callum Clayton-Dixon reassesses the frontier wars

by Callum Clayton-Dixon, Jan 17, 2017

This year marks the bicentennial of John Oxley’s 1818 reconnaissance mission to the New England tableland in New South Wales, which lay the foundation for 200 years (and counting) of violent and stifling colonialism. The first squatter reached New England in 1832, and an intense period of frontier conflict accompanied the ensuing invasion and occupation.

Australia: Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) call for 7 Days of Resistance in the lead up to Invasion Day Jan. 20th-26th

Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance invite everybody to participate in the 7 days of resistance initiative starting 20th January leading up to January 26th 2018. Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance will host a series of events during the lead up to the Invasion day rallies in various cities, regional and remote spaces across the country.

Australia: Frontier Wars Graphic

From our Aboriginal brothers and sisters in Australia:

Video: Invasion Day March Brisbane

Published to YouTube Yupster2501 on Jan 26, 2016

Warning, Some shaky video.
On the 26th of January 2016 we are linking in with other cities and small towns around the country to be heard as one voice and let Australia know that we don’t support CONstitutional reform and the Recognise campaign. It’s about time that we started our own national discussion on what we want weather it is Treaty/Treaties, Independence, A 7th State or a Republic. It is only us who can change our future and let make a future that we all can live in.

 

Australia Day: Invasion Day rallies held across nation

ABC News, January 26, 2016

Invasion Day rallies have been held across the nation to remember the First Fleet landing in Australia and the ensuing killings of Indigenous people.

For many Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Islanders and activists, there is little to celebrate on Australia Day, which is seen as the dispossession of Indigenous land and a day of mourning over the First Fleet’s arrival at Port Jackson, Sydney, in 1788.