Two historical statues were damaged in Melbourne on Sunday before the celebrations for the Australia Day. Tens of thousands of people across the country have joined protests to support groups of Aborigines who say that the date should not cheer.
A statue of the colonist John Batman, a founder of the second largest city in the country and which was involved in the murder of indigenous people, was sawn in two halves, while a monument that reminded Australian soldiers in the First World War “land,” said police and Local media reports.
The Australian national holiday on January 26th is a mourning date for many indigenous Australians because it marks the day on which captain James Cook has ended up in Sydney Cove and the beginning of the country’s colonization by the British.
Demonstrators also had Palestinian flags, and the speakers spoke of similarities between the experiences of Aboriginal and Palestinian experiences.
“Invasion day. It’s all about the survival of our people. We are still here. We don’t go anywhere. As you know, you can try to assimilate everything you want, but we are still here,” said Hill.
In Sydney, the artwork of the Wiradjuri-Biripi artist James P. Simon was projected onto the sails of the opera house at one of many Dawn reflection events across the country.
The police estimated that 15,000 people took part in protests and music events in Sydney all day.
In the central business district of Melbourne, the police estimated around 25,000 people on the street.
The spokesman for the protests talked about topics that are important for the Aboriginal Australians, including the high number of Aboriginal deaths in police custody, missing and murdered Aboriginal women, land rights and the advance to create a contract for supporting indigenous people.
The efforts of the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to establish a constitutional voice for the Aboriginal of the Parliament of Parliament were observed in a referendum from 2023.
The opposition leader Peter Dutton said in a contribution on social media that the Australians should “not be afraid to celebrate their country at the Australia Day.
Dutton said that the country has to unite under a flag and that it will remove Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags from state press conferences if it becomes prime minister in the event of an election that has to take place in mid -May.
