Thousands of Australians protested the anniversary of British colonisation of their country on Friday, calling for Australia Day to be moved and a day of mourning to be declared on a holiday some call “Invasion Day.”
The celebration marks the arrival of 11 British ships carrying prisoners at Port Jackson in modern-day Sydney on January 26, 1788.
Thousands of people, many waving indigenous flags, gathered in front of the Victorian state parliament in Melbourne, calling for an official day of mourning to be declared across Australia. Protests took place in all major cities across the country.
Two monuments symbolising Australia’s colonial past were damaged in Melbourne on Thursday: a statue of British naval officer James Cook, who mapped Sydney’s coastline in 1770, was sawed down and a monument to Queen Victoria was covered in red paint.
According to the 2021 Bureau of Statistics census, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 3.8 per cent of Australia’s 26 million people, with Indigenous people being the most disadvantaged ethnic minority in the country.
Tensions rose after Australian voters in October decisively rejected a referendum to establish an advocacy committee to advise parliament on policies affecting Indigenous people.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared on Friday that National Day gave Australians the opportunity to “pause and reflect on everything that we have achieved as a nation.”
