Tens of thousands of protesters have turned out for Invasion Day and Survival Day rallies around the nation calling for change, with major events held in every capital city.
Demonstrators in Melbourne descended on state parliament on Friday morning before a march to Flinders Street Station.
Cheers rang out as a eulogy for Australia Day was read out and a speaker celebrated the toppling of a statue of Captain Cook, which was cut off at the feet and graffitied in St Kilda on Thursday.
The rally featured many younger community leaders who said they had nothing to celebrate on January 26.
“It not only marks the colonisation of this country, but it marks the ongoing trauma that our people still endure today from the removal of our black babies to our mob being the most incarcerated in the country,” Ky-Ya Nicholson Ward said.
Demonstrators also descended on Brisbane’s Queens Gardens, Darwin’s Civic Park and Adelaide’s Victoria Square to protest the national day and treatment of Australia’s first peoples.
Sydney’s major demonstration at Belmore Park had family members of Aboriginal people who have died in custody calling for an end to systemic discrimination.
Attendance at Hobart’s rally was expected to surpass 2023 numbers as organisers demanded the national day celebrations cease or move to a new date.
