(Sydney) Thousands of people demonstrated across Australia on Thursday, on the occasion of the national holiday which is a day increasingly jeered especially by the indigenous communities who see it as a symbol of the beginning of colonization.
Australia’s National Day, commemorated on January 26, celebrates the arrival of the First European Fleet in Sydney Harbor in 1788.
In recent years, this day has become the occasion for demonstrations, with some Australians calling this “Day of the Invasion” the starting point of a cultural genocide.
In the heart of Sydney, indigenous activist Paul Silva has defended the abolition of the national holiday.
“They invaded our lands, killing our extended families, turning our warriors into slaves,” he said. “How can we celebrate this day”?
For her part, the native poet Lizzie Jarrett judged that Sydney was “ground zero for a genocide of the First Nations”. “Do you think we are angry? Wouldn’t you be angry? she launched to the crowd of several thousand people.
Similar rallies were held in major cities across the country.
Australian historian Lyndall Ryan has estimated that over 10,000 natives have been killed in 400 massacres since British settlement began.
Of Australia’s 25 million people, approximately 900,000 now identify as members of an Indigenous community.
The question of the official recognition of these communities, which are never mentioned in the Constitution of the country, adopted in 1901, divides the country today.
The Australian centre-left government argues in favor of this amendment, unlike the Conservative camp, which considers it unnecessary.
Australians will be called upon to vote on the amendment, which could give Indigenous communities a “voice” in Parliament, in a mandatory referendum to be held this year.
Until the 1960s, women did not have the right to vote in some states and territories of the country.
The inequalities faced by indigenous communities are still glaring: their life expectancy is notably lower by several years than that of other Australians.