Above photo: Arama Rata.
Thousands gathered across Australia for Invasion Day protests.
Highlighting the ongoing oppression of Indigenous nations.
Tens of thousands of people took part in “Invasion Day” protests in cities and towns across Australia on Sunday, January 26. The protests highlighted the ongoing oppression of Indigenous peoples under colonial occupation, and opposed the celebration of ‘Australia Day,’ which falls on January 26—the anniversary of the British invasion of the lands now known as Australia, in 1788.
Opposition To The Making Queensland Safer Act
Ruby Wharton, Community Development Officer at Sisters Inside Inc., spoke at the Invasion Day protest in Meanjin (Brisbane). Protesters met at Victoria Park before marching through the city to Musgrave Park, the site of the Brisbane Sovereign Embassy, established in 2012 as a symbol of Aboriginal sovereignty.
Wharton’s focus for this year’s Invasion Day protest was on opposing the controversial Making Queensland Safer Act 2024, passed by the Liberal National Party (LNP) of Queensland. This legislation allows the state to impose adult penalties for serious crimes on children as young as 10 years old.
“Invasion is an ongoing event,” Wharton said. “The LNP were voted in, and within their first week, they passed the ‘adult time for adult crime’ bill, on the same day they abolished the pathway to treaty. They’ve built the first remand center for children, and now they plan to build three new prisons, two of which will be for children. It’s illegal to place children in joint cells, so they’re often spending more than 72 hours in solitary confinement, which is a clear violation of their human rights.”
Wharton drew parallels between contemporary human rights abuses and the forced removal of Indigenous children by federal and state agencies, which occurred for much of the last Century. The 1997 Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families described these actions as “an act of genocide.”
“This is the remnant of the Stolen Generations legislation, now playing out through the family policing system,” she explained. “Many of the children incarcerated today are wards of the state. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are six times more likely to be taken from their families now than during the Stolen Generations.”
Solidarity Between National Anti-Racist Movement And Indigenous Struggles
Earlier this week, Wharton spoke at the National Symposium Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action, hosted by the Carumba Institute at QUT. The symposium, which brought together Indigenous, Palestinian, and Jewish scholars, advocates, and activists, explored the similarities between the violence of Australian and Israeli settler-colonial projects under US-led imperialism.
Speakers at the event included Senator Lidia Thorpe, and prominent Lebanese-Australian race theorist Ghassan Hage, author of White Nation.
Mainstream Media Portrays Symposium As Antisemitic
Controversy erupted following media coverage of the event, particularly after a leaked recording surfaced of Sarah Schwartz, Executive Officer of the Jewish Council of Australia. In the recording, Schwartz criticized Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton for using a stereotypical portrayal of Jewish people—“Dutton’s Jews”—to further his political agenda.
The University of Queensland has since faced accusations of hosting an event that promotes “hate speech” and “anti-Semitism”, which Schwartz denied.
“My speech was a critique of Dutton’s bigoted agenda,” Schwartz explained. “Right-wing media and racist outlets have used this as an opportunity to attack not only me but the entire conference. These publications are doing exactly what I was criticizing in my speech—using racial caricatures to present Jewish people as a monolith, and silencing voices like mine that don’t fit their mold.”
Schwartz, a vocal critic of Israel and an outspoken opponent of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, described the symposium as an essential platform for solidarity across racial lines.
“The conference hosted diverse voices. It was about solidarity and the interconnectedness of Indigenous struggles. We need these spaces. We also need spaces where we can laugh at racists.”
The Fight For Indigenous Rights Builds Strength
Professor Chelsea Watego, one of the symposium’s organizers, emphasized the significance of this year’s Invasion Day protest in Queensland.
“This is a particularly violent government. They’re not even trying to hide their agenda. But no matter what they do, we will continue to speak the truth from the front lines. For some, Invasion Day is a day of mourning, but when you see our Mob mobilize, there’s so much strength in that.”
Dr. Arama Rata is a Māori independent researcher in Aotearoa New Zealand.