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.
Speeches were held outside nearby Australia Hall — the site of the first national Aboriginal civil rights gathering, in 1938.
“People celebrate when it’s the beginning of the killing of our people, the loss of language, devastation, disease,” he said.
Hundreds of people also gathered at Parliament House in Melbourne to hear Aboriginal speakers talk about their ancestors and what Invasion Day meant for them.
Many in the crowd held Aboriginal flags and signs calling for sovereignty.
“Always will be Aboriginal land,” one protester said.
One of the organisers of the Brisbane protest said the term “Australia” was a direct contradiction and denial of the hundreds of tribal countries that exist on the continent, whose sovereignty has never been ceded.
“Today is not the day to hold our heads down in shame or sadness, it’s a day to keep our heads held high. We didn’t do anything wrong on this day.”
Hundreds wore Indigenous flags and were led by two men in traditional body paint as they marched through Hobart’s CBD, chanting “not my day”.
Those at the rally said crowd numbers had dramatically increased in recent years, with organiser Trudy Maluga adding her family would not celebrate a day marking European colonisation.
“On the day they invaded my people’s country, it’s barbaric and it should be changed,” she said.