‘No pride in genocide’: Thousands march in NAIDOC Week rally
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A crowd of about 5000 marched through the streets of Melbourne’s CBD on Friday for a NAIDOC Week rally celebrating the culture and history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
As rally attendees – threaded in red, yellow and black – marched, they chanted “no pride in genocide”.
Relatives of Uncle Jack Charles carry pictures of family members on the march as it passed down Nicholson Street, Fitzroy.Credit: Justin McManus
The rally is an annual event that attracts Indigenous community elders, families and groups of young people.
After a morning of banner making and face painting at the Victoria Aboriginal Health Service in Fitzroy, the marchers set out along Nicholson Street towards Parliament House in Spring Street.
Elders and community leaders addressed the crowd at culturally significant sites along the way, including the Parliament Gardens memorial to Indigenous rights and justice campaigners, Pastor Sir Douglas and Lady Gladys Nicholls.
Their youngest daughter Aunty Pam Pederson said the turnout made her feel proud.
The NAIDOC march culminated on the steps of Parliament House.Credit: Justin McManus
“It just makes me feel very emotional just to look at the sea of my beautiful Aboriginal people,” Pederson told the rally.
More speeches on land justice, child removals, the over-representation of Koorie men, women and children in custody, mental health care and the ongoing impacts of colonisation on First Peoples were delivered in front of Parliament House steps.
Speakers included veteran Aboriginal activists Gary Foley and Gary Murray, Mutti Mutti man and Stolen Generations survivor Mick Edwards and First People’s Assembly member Jason Kelly.
About 5000 people turned out for the march.Credit: Justin McManus
The march resumed along Bourke and Swanston Streets, stopping outside Flinders Street station, where a performance of traditional dancing was welcomed by the crowd. Some marchers then wandered across Federation Square where NAIDOC Week stalls and an evening of live entertainment on the main stage awaited.
Sarai Roe, a Yorta Yorta woman, activist and founder of Indigenous organisation Wanyara, said the peaceful march was a great way to showcase the achievements of Indigenous people.
First Nations culture was proudly on display at the NAIDOC march.Credit: Justin McManus
“It’s a great way to celebrate and I think with all the negative things that we see in the media, I don’t want my children to be feeling the harshness of that so being able to see our mob in this light and the celebration of our mob is great,” she said.
Calls for justice, systemic reform and land rights took centre focus at the rally, which 16-year-old Indigenous student Beau from Wallan said was an important conversation.
“It’s very important to let everyone know that it’s our week and that our land has been stolen off us,” he said.
NAIDOC is an acronym for the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.
NAIDOC Week stems from the activism of Aboriginal groups in the 1920s and 1930s. In particular, the advocacy of Yorta Yorta elder William Cooper, who lobbied government to establish an annual event after the first Day of Mourning protest gathering in Sydney in 1938.
“No pride in genocide” was chanted by marchers.Credit: Justin McManus
With AAP
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