Opponents of Australia Day mourn European ‘invasion’

SYDNEY — Thousands of people marked Australia’s national day on Friday with “Invasion Day” rallies in support of the country’s indigenous community, many of whom want to drop celebrations or move the date.

Australia Day commemorates the day Britain established the state of New South Wales as a penal colony, arriving in what is now the state capital, Sydney, with a fleet of ships bringing colonists and convicts.

Many people celebrate the holiday with barbecues and trips to the beach, and it is a popular date for immigrants to obtain Australian citizenship.

However, many indigenous Australians, who make up 3.8 percent of the country’s 26 million people, reject the holiday as marking the start of injustices suffered since European colonization began.

In Sydney thousands of protesters, many waving indigenous flags, gathered in the city center at an “Invasion Day” rally before a march that closed nearby city streets.

Adrian Burragubba, an Aboriginal elder, said he was at the rally to “tell people that Australia Day doesn’t mean anything to us”.

“It’s the day of Aboriginal sovereignty,” Burragubba said.

One protester, James Cummings, a Sydney local, said it was “not the right day to be celebrating a national day”.

“One of the strong themes that we are marching in support of today is just finding a more appropriate day to celebrate the nation.”

Similar rallies took place in other state capitals, including Melbourne in Victoria, Brisbane in Queensland and Hobart in Tasmania.

Indigenous Australians who have occupied the land for at least 65,000 years are among the country’s most disadvantaged people and face issues including poor health and education outcomes and high incarceration rates.

Despite calls to change the date of Australia Day from Jan 26, such a move has been ruled out by the governing Labor Party.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, told a citizenship ceremony in Canberra on Friday that the day was “our chance to pause and reflect on everything that we have achieved as a nation”.

Police said late on Friday that they had arrested six people and issued 55 others with infringement notices for offensive behavior at a train station in Sydney.

A group of those present was “heavily disguised”, police said.

Two statues of colonial figures were vandalized in Melbourne earlier on Friday.

A statue of the British explorer James Cook, who mapped the east coast of Australia and claimed it for Britain, was cut at the ankles and defaced in St. Kilda in south Melbourne. A statute of Queen Victoria was daubed in paint.

“This sort of vandalism really has no place in our community,” said Jacinta Allan, the premier of Victoria.