Thousands of Australia Day protesters have started gathering outside Victoria’s Parliament House ahead of an Invasion Day rally, despite the ongoing 100-person limit on public gatherings.
In the crowd, one person holds a sign reading: “White Australia has a black history.” Another sign says: “No pride in genocide.”
The Australia Day protesters are also holding visual tributes to David Dungay, an Indigenous man who died in prison, and Tanya Day, who died in hospital after being injured in a prison cell.
Australia Day protesters outside Parliament House.Credit:Justin McManus
Most attendees are wearing masks, but social distancing is proving difficult already. Protesters have been told to wear face masks, use hand sanitiser frequently and stay in groups of 100.
Eighteen ‘legal observers’, wearing pink bibs and masks, are monitoring the event. Equipped with video cameras and business cards outlining protesters’ rights, their role is to gather objective evidence in case of trouble between police and protesters.
Police are also filming the protest from the rooftop of The Imperial hotel on Spring Street.
It comes after hundreds of people, including Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp, gathered for a dawn mourning service in the steady rain at Kings Domain.
A minute’s silence to remember those who have passed was led by senior Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy at the service.
“Our heartache and our loss can not be measured,” she told the crowd.“Still today, we lose too many of our people.”
The Invasion Day dawn service at Kings Domain. Credit:Justin McManus
Bundjalung-Yorta Yorta man and historian John Patten told the crowd that January 26 represented a day where “many minds and hearts are in conflict, but they don’t need to be”.
“It’s been interesting to see over the last two years how the winds have changed in our direction,” he said.
“More and more Australians are starting to see and starting to speak out and understand that there is something more to be said about Australia Day: Mourning Day, Invasion Day.”
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, read a list of massacres of Indigenous people in Victoria.
Protesters lay out signs in front of Parliament House.Credit:Justin Mcmanus
A number of other councils, including Port Phillip Council, also held mourning events on Tuesday.
Later in the morning, Aunty Joy took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a flag-raising ceremony at Melbourne’s Government House.
Mr Morrison told Cricket Australia to stick to cricket after the government body scrapped the term Australia Day from the promotion of its Big Bash matches.
Aunty Joy said those comments show the fight for Indigenous equality has gone backwards under the current government.
“I’m very disappointed in what the Prime Minister had to say about Cricket Australia when in his first term of office he made a statement about changing the constitution. We talk about, ‘let there be trust, let there be confidence’ and all we hear is about being patient. We’ve almost lost that patience.”
A protester at the Invasion Day march in Melbourne.Credit:Justin McManus
Tuesday’s Invasion Day rally is organised by the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, the same group behind Melbourne’s Black Lives Matter rally in June.
Last week, Premier Daniel Andrews said Victorians should not attend Invasion Day rallies, with large congregations still banned under COVID-19 rules.
“This will be a different Australia Day, we’re in the midst of a global pandemic,” he said.
“It’s no time to be protesting, it just isn’t. We’ve built something precious and unique, Victorians have, through their sacrifice and their commitment and their compassion for each other and we have to safeguard that.”
Anti-lockdown protesters, who clashed with police last year, have also vowed to rally.
A People’s Australia Day Parade, protesting the cancellation of Melbourne’s Australia Day parade, is scheduled to start near Queen Victoria Gardens at 2pm and march to Catani Gardens.
The event is hosted by the Melbourne Freedom Rally group, which was associated with last year’s anti-lockdown protests.
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Ashleigh McMillan is a breaking news reporter at The Age. Got a story? Email me at a.mcmillan@theage.com.au
Michael is a state political reporter for The Age.
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2021-01-25 23:09:00Z
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