Hundreds turn out for Invasion Day mourning dawn services ahead of major CBD rally

He said that there was a “deliberate ignorance” in Australia about the history of the land.
“The British tried everything to eradicate us after their invasion but it didn’t work,” he said.

“We want you to listen to our voice, and that is why I believe we are here today with so much support, wanting our voice to be heard and listened to and respected.”

He said the movement to change the date of Australia Day isn’t a dividing force in Australia, but trying to unite people. “If we can celebrate all together, that is unity, but we just cannot do it … on this day.”

A minute of silence was held at 11.26am

Crews of about 100, separated by about five metres, started marching down Bourke Street at 11am, with most being led by a government-organised coronavirus marshall wearing a red armband.

The separation of groups created a series of mini protests along the thoroughfare, with groups shouting different chants. The most heard was a common refrain at protests: “Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.”

One person held a sign reading: “White Australia has a black history.” Another sign says: “No pride in genocide.”

Most attendees are wearing masks, but social distancing is proving difficult already. Protesters have been told to wear face masks, use hand sanitiser frequently.

Eighteen “legal observers”, wearing pink bibs and masks, are monitoring the event. Equipped with video cameras and business cards outlining protesters’ rights, their role is to gather objective evidence in case of trouble between police and protesters.

Police are also filming the protest from the rooftop of the Imperial Hotel on the corner of Bourke and Spring streets.

It comes after hundreds of people, including Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp, gathered for a dawn mourning service in the steady rain at Kings Domain.

A minute’s silence to remember those who have passed was led by senior Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy at the service.

“Our heartache and our loss can not be measured,” she told the crowd.“Still today, we lose too many of our people.”

Bundjalung-Yorta Yorta man and historian John Patten told the crowd that January 26 represented a day where “many minds and hearts are in conflict, but they don’t need to be”.

“It’s been interesting to see over the last two years how the winds have changed in our direction,” he said.

“More and more Australians are starting to see and starting to speak out and understand that there is something more to be said about Australia Day: Mourning Day, Invasion Day.”

Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, read a list of massacres of Indigenous people in Victoria.

A number of other councils, including Port Phillip Council, also held mourning events on Tuesday.

Later in the morning, Aunty Joy took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a flag-raising ceremony at Melbourne’s Government House.

Mr Morrison told Cricket Australia to stick to cricket after the governing body scrapped the term Australia Day from the promotion of its Big Bash matches.

Aunty Joy said those comments show the fight for Indigenous equality had gone backwards under the current government.

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“I’m very disappointed in what the Prime Minister had to say about Cricket Australia when in his first term of office he made a statement about changing the constitution. We talk about, ‘let there be trust, let there be confidence’ and all we hear is about being patient. We’ve almost lost that patience.”

Tuesday’s Invasion Day rally is organised by the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, the same group behind Melbourne’s Black Lives Matter rally in June.

That protest that attracted tens of thousands of attendees and became a political flashpoint for weeks. No cases of community transmission were recorded at that protest.

Last week, Premier Daniel Andrews said Victorians should not attend Invasion Day rallies, with large congregations still banned under COVID-19 rules.

“This will be a different Australia Day, we’re in the midst of a global pandemic,” he said.

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“It’s no time to be protesting, it just isn’t. We’ve built something precious and unique, Victorians have, through their sacrifice and their commitment and their compassion for each other and we have to safeguard that.”

Anti-lockdown protesters, who clashed with police last year, have also vowed to rally.

A People’s Australia Day Parade, protesting the cancellation of Melbourne’s Australia Day parade, is scheduled to start near Queen Victoria Gardens at 2pm and march to Catani Gardens.

The event is hosted by the Melbourne Freedom Rally group, which was associated with last year’s anti-lockdown protests.

With Carolyn Webb, Ashleigh McMillan