Crowds have swelled considerably across the morning, with today’s march protesting the historic injustices against Aboriginal people predicted to be Brisbane’s biggest ever.
An estimated 5000 people had arrived for the march by 11am, with protesters packed down side streets surrounding the Queens Gardens.Dozens of police lined the perimeters of George and Elizabeth St where crowds initially gathered ahead of the march, with over 2000 people already in Queens Gardens before 10am.
Despite the large crowds, there have only been a few minor issues across the morning, with one woman collapsing from suspected heatstroke as temperatures reached 29C in Brisbane. The young woman was being assessed by paramedics. Elsewhere, a man sparked anger after walking through the protest wearing an Australian flag.Police spoke to him after he became involved in a verbal dispute with an indigenous man.TransLink says bus stations in South Brisbane are temporarily unavailable due to the protest action.
Speeches started outside the Treasury Casino at 10am, with several indigenous elders and community members delivering emotional statements to the large crowd. The speeches covered a range of issues including indigenous incarnation rates, deaths in custody, the historic trauma of the stolen generation, environmental concerns, as well as repeated calls to “abolish the date” of January 26. In response, the crowd cheered “always was, always will be Aboriginal land”. Indigenous colours and messaging had also been draped over a statue of Her Majesty, including a large sign that says “Not the Queen’s land”, with Aboriginal flags either side.
Aunty Vera Short said she had been attending Invasion Day rallies for “too many years to remember”. “I hope that they change the date so that I can enjoy and celebrate Australia with all Australians,” she said. “Today I had to make it down, I’ve got my walker, to show my granddaughters.“You don’t celebrate killing people.”
More than two-thirds of the attendees have donned masks, with social distancing difficult in the packed crowd. A QR code for the event was distributed online and organisers requested attendees bring hand sanitiser and wear masks throughout.
To start the day, hundreds gathered in Musgrave Park for a flag-raising ceremony.One activist said: “Today is survival day”.“Today is the day that the colonisers came onto their ships, and killed our people, our families, they stole our babies,” she said.“This flag represents our mob, the black represents our mob on the top and the yellow represents the sun where we get our energy from, and the red is the red sand that we walk on.“So today we’re going to remember our people, like every day we are going to remember our people.”
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The march is expected to commence at 11am and go through the CBD back to South Brisbane’s Musgrave Park.
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