Where To Protest So-Called Australia Day And How To Do It Safely
Pandemic or not, Invasion Day can be a nerve-racking and emotional time for many First Nations Australians. And with much more work to be done to address and dismantle systemic racism in Australia, protesting is part of that.
The day represents the first of many murders and the birth of hundreds of years of dispossession, racism and intergenerational trauma. It’s a day Australians celebrate the colony while Indigenous Australians are made to remember a history that brutalised their culture.
“Celebrating Australia Day is celebrating ignorance — the ignorance of the truth,” Thomas Mayor, Torres Strait author of the best-seller ′Finding The Heart of the Nation,’ told HuffPost Australia.
“A nation that has evolved from its colonial and convict past would mark the day as a day of mourning,” Mayor said. “And also, it would be a day to celebrate First Nations survival. Invasion and genocide is nothing to be proud of.”
While Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly called the country’s COVID-19 situation an “envious position” compared to most of the world (the country is reporting 22,000 cases and 909 deaths so far), some states will enforce a COVID-19 public health order that limits the number of attendees at public gatherings.
According to Facebook events, thousands are expected to march across Australia with rally organisers stressing that the protests are peaceful and that all have strict coronavirus-safe plans in place.
Adelaide/Kaurna Country
Time: 11:30 am
Meeting place: Victoria Square
Alice Springs/Mparntwe Country
Time: 10 am
Meeting place: Court Lawn
Brisbane/Meanjin
Time: 10 am
Meeting place: Queen’s Garden’s, Elizabeth Street
Canberra/Ngunnawal Country
Time: 10 am
Meeting place: Garema Place
Darwin/Larrakia Country
Time: 10 am
Meeting place: Civic Park
Time: Midday
Meeting place: Hobart Parliament House
Newcastle/Awabakal Country
Time: 10 am
Meeting place:...