Thousands of Australians demonstrated in Sydney on Tuesday, despite coronavirus rally restrictions, to protest the national holiday commemorating the arrival of the first British settlers in 1788, a celebration they see as an insult to indigenous populations.
For many Australians, “Australia Day” on January 26 marks the beginning of the oppression of indigenous peoples. They demand that this national holiday be rethought, claiming that January 26 is nothing other than “Invasion Day”.
Thousands of people gathered in a park in central Sydney, despite threats of fines and police arrest over a ban on gatherings of more than 500 people. The associations generally organizing the demonstrations of this “Invasion Day” had canceled the march that traditionally takes place in the city on January 26.
Police said five people had been arrested, including one for assaulting an officer.
The authorities refused to grant an exemption to the organizers of the march, even though no case of Covid-19 has been recorded for more than a week in the city.
“Sovereignty has never been ceded”, “No justice, no peace” chanted the demonstrators, some carrying banners proclaiming “Black Lives Matter”, or “This is not a day of celebration”.
“For us, this is a cultural genocide. Our families have been torn apart. Years and years of sickness and famine. And the intergenerational impact continues to be felt today, ”Dylan Booth, who is from an aboriginal people of New South Wales, told AFP.
Other rallies have taken place elsewhere in Australia, with their organizers generally urging attendees to wear a mask or observe social distancing rules.
“Australia Day”, which was not formally declared as a public holiday until 1994, has been at the heart of growing controversy in recent years.
Present in Australia for at least 40,000 years, the aborigines, whose number was estimated at one million when the settlers arrived in 1788, now represent only 3% of the 25 million Australians. They are therefore less numerous today than at the beginning of colonization.
The Aborigines remain by far the most disadvantaged population in the country with in particular higher rates of poverty and higher incarceration. They are in poorer health than the general population.
The right continues to defend tooth and nail the principle of the celebration of January 26.
Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the course of history had “forever changed” in 1788 and “that reality cannot be changed”.
“For better or for worse, this is the time when Australia has started its march towards modernity,” he said at a ceremony in Canberra. “And it is this journey that is still in progress that we are celebrating today.”
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