Australia/Invasion Day Protest

From WCH: On 26 January 1938, Aboriginal Australians rallied in Sydney on the 150th anniversary of the landing of the British First Fleet at Sydney Cove, in protest at ongoing discrimination against Aboriginal people. For the Australian colonial state, 26 January is marked as Australia Day, whereas since 1938 many Indigenous peoples mark it as Invasion Day, Survival Day, or Day of Mourning, to mourn the British invasion and protest against its celebration as a national holiday. On January 26, 1938, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people assembled at the Australian Hall and endorsed the following resolution: “We, representing the Aborigines of Australia, assembled in conference at the Australian Hall, Sydney, on the 26th day of January 1938, this being the 150th Anniversary of the Whiteman’s seizure of our country, hereby make protest against the callous treatment of our people by the whitemen during the past 150 years, AND WE APPEAL to the Australian nation of today to make new laws for the education and care of Aborigines, and we ask for a new policy which will raise our people to full citizen status and equality within the community.” Aboriginal resistance to colonialism continues, and thousands of people take to the streets across Australia on January 26, as a counter to Australia Day, calling for the date of the latter to be changed, or the holiday to be abolished entirely.