‘A day to mourn’: thousands protest against Australia Day national holiday

Thousands of Australians protested against the anniversary of British colonisation on Friday, with large crowds across the country calling for Australia Day to be moved and for a day of mourning to instead be held on what they call “Invasion Day”.

Speeches in major cities highlighted anger and despair over high Indigenous incarceration rates, deaths in custody and the forced removal of First Nations children from their families. The rallies come months after the proposal for an Indigenous voice to parliament was overwhelmingly defeated at a national referendum.

In Victoria, the host of the Invasion Day rally congratulated those who chopped Captain Cook off a statue in St Kilda on Thursday, drawing applause from the crowd outside parliament. “This is massive. I’m really, really proud of our city,” he said. “I’m really proud of the people who took action yesterday.”

Some attenders at the Melbourne rally held signs noting the destruction with the words “the colony will fall”, the same phrase that was spray-painted on the statue’s plinth.

The rallies in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane also heavily featured Palestinian flags and the keffiyeh, a traditional scarf that has grown to symbolise the struggle for a Palestinian state.

Australia Day, held on 26 January, commemorates the arrival of the British fleet in Sydney harbour in 1788.

When the fleet arrived, the land was deemed unoccupied, despite the fact the island continent has been continuously occupied by Indigenous groups for more than 40,000 years. For growing numbers of Australians, the highly sensitive date is not a time for celebration, but instead marks the date that the colonisation of Australia began, accompanied by the mistreatment of Indigenous people.

On Friday, Brooke Prentis, a descendant of the Wakka Wakka people and an Aboriginal Christian leader, attended a large rally in Brisbane and said she held no ill-will towards those enjoying the day.

“I love the lamington, I love the barbie, I love the lamb chop,” said Prentis, referring to common Australia Day foods and activities. “But the date needs to be thought about as a day of mourning, so that we can mature as a nation.

“I’m not telling anyone to change what they do on Australia Day, but maybe just think about the First Nations people.”

The marches date back to shortly after 1935, the year that 26 January was first recognised as a day of national celebration. First Nations people deemed it a day of mourning. In more recent decades, overt signs of patriotism, including wearing flag-adorned clothing on the public holiday, have become common.

There has also been a growing push to change the date of the national celebration, a move popular with younger Australians but less so with older generations. Terms such as Invasion Day and Survival Day are now routinely used as a means of counter-observance.

At Brisbane’s rally, protesters battled the heat holding signs reading “not a date to celebrate” and “no justice, no peace”.

The journalist and academic Amy McQuire spoke against what she called a policy of forced “amnesia”, pointing to her home state having one of the highest national rates of imprisonment of young Indigenous people, while the academic Chelsea Watego criticised the state for having the strongest opposition to the voice to parliament.

“The prime minister Albanese said on 14 October [that] the Australian people have spoken,” she said. “You hear what they said? We don’t deserve shit. Not even an advisory body. We’ve got to listen to that.”

In Sydney, Melanie Watkins was not going to let temperatures of 37C stop her from bringing her children to Belmore Park for an Invasion Day rally.

The two boys, aged 10 and six, stood to the side of the demonstration listening to the speeches, their wide-brimmed hats keeping sunburn at bay. “Today is a day to mourn, not to celebrate,” Watkins said. “I brought my kids because it’s important they know the true history of Australia … Hopefully by educating them at a young age, they can help bring some change.”

Local councils and businesses have been distancing themselves from the zeal they once attached to the date, with many now engaging in events that include an acknowledgment of the misdeeds of the past.

Dozens of councils have stopped holding citizenship ceremonies to mark the date, while a Melbourne council, Maribyrnong, lowers the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to half-mast “as a symbol of the grief and loss the day represents for many First Nations people”.

The major bank ANZ is among the growing number of large employers allowing staff to choose a different day to take off.

Pat Cummins, Australia’s cricket test captain, is one of the country’s highest-profile sporting stars to push for a change of date to mark Australia’s national day. “We should have an Australia Day, but we can probably find a more appropriate day to celebrate it,” he said this week.

But as the patriotic ties to 26 January show signs of fraying, supporters of the status quo have been galvanised.

The conservative opposition leader, Peter Dutton, earlier called for a boycott of the supermarket Woolworths over its decision to stop stocking Australia Day merchandise, a decision the group said was due to a lack of customer demand rather than a commentary on the date. Shortly after, some Woolworths stores were vandalised with pro-Australia Day messages.

Friday’s public holiday was the first Australia Day since the unsuccessful “voice” referendum, an issue raised at many of the rallies.

The “voice” was designed to create an independent advisory body to advise governments on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, such as health, education, and housing.

Prentis said that while the division in Australia was evident, it was important to remember that Aboriginal people did not cause it. “That division was caused back on 26 January 1788,” Prentis said.

“We are now rallying for unity in how we walk together as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples of all cultures.”

One sign held up at the Brisbane rally read: “We’re showing you how to unite, but you wanna fight.”

AAP contributed to this report