Yesterday I stood in King George square for two hours before marching to Musgrave Park and listening and watching until the event finally concluded around six-thirty. The event might have finished, but the effect of the day and the purpose of the day has not changed.

Before I talk about the protest I want to quickly address my disgust for people who discouraged the protest, who called those who attended ‘idiots’, who claimed that it’s a “US issue” and that one shameful person who said the protests were ‘self-indulgent’. It just shows how racist and two-faced the general Australian population is when they’re okay with people protesting the restrictions of Covid19, when they’re okay with them protesting conspiracies, when they’re okay with people protesting vaccines, and yet they’re not okay with people protesting systematic racism that results in the oppression and deaths of First Nations People. The level of ignorance displayed just reminds me how uneducated this country is. You want to protest the restrictions of the pandemic and vaccines? And then say that protesting Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is going to be the reason for the next wave of Covid19? Really? If you disagree with me, go back and read that sentence again. RESTRICTIONS and VACCINES are allowed to be protested in this time of PANDEMIC, and somehow that’s part of human rights and protesting the systematic MURDER of People of Colour ISN’T?

It was an amazing experience. Voices echoed off of buildings, reverberating with history and emotion, travelling through the streets and across the parks. There was a farewell song for the son of a speaker, who had been killed in police custody. The music came loudly through the speakers, sending tremors through my body and it felt like energy was rising up through everyone. As if the ancestors of the Indigenous Australians were present, lending strength to all of the families of the 432 victims of police brutality. The drumming of boards and posters and hands rolled through the march like waves, astounding displays of union that I had never seen before.

“Always was, always will be! Aboriginal Land!”

We heard many stories about the numerous People of Colour killed in the custody of Australian police, with one having just occurred in the past twenty-four hours.

432 since 1991.

That’s almost 15 a year.

15 a year from a 3% of our population.

And it’s not just shootings. It’s being beaten to death and left to die. It’s being suffocated.

Convictions: 0.

Take a look for yourself: https://theconversation.com/despite-432-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-since-1991-no-one-has-ever-been-convicted-racist-silence-and-complicity-are-to-blame-139873
Start there and educate yourself. Read their names and what happened to them. I won’t put their names in this post out of respect for Indigenous Australian history. Education and activism also starts with wanting to know, and going out of your way to learn. Australia is where it is now because people just eat the texts that are given to them.

The sun was high and so was spirit, people from many walks of life present. I saw my Polynesian brothers and sisters and the LGBTQ+ community, the African and Asian communities, and non-Indigenous Australians; I started the day disgusted with Australia and finished it somewhat proud.

“What to we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”

There is still a lot to be done to support First Nations People but I did not expect such a large protest given the past of this country. Though I saw police smirk, which I had expected but was still outraged to see, the rally maintained its peace. “Look at us!” some women screamed to them, as they sat on a balcony enjoying their time, but they refused to do so.

As I watched the dances and learnt little bits of lore, I was once again in awe of the beauty of Indigenous Australian culture and their resilience. For more than two-hundred years they have fought a war, a system designed against them, and they are still fighting, and they are still here.

“You should have been here.”

They said it so many times. Solidarity isn’t putting a black square up for your profile picture for a day, it’s not just about showing up to one protest to say you did and it’s not about the hash-tags if you’re just going to go back to being ignorant of the issues. Solidarity is continuing to support those who are met with injustice throughout the world. Educate yourself on the issues, that’s I’m doing. Trying to gather more information and more ways to help and show my solidarity and give my support.

Read works written by Indigenous Australians, go to websites actually managed by First Nations People, listen to their stories, because they are the stories of Australia. As a writer, I started with Dhuuluu-Yala: to Talk Straight: Publishing Indigenous Literature by Anita Heiss. And I also greatly recommend Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu.

I’ve seen the Twitter community supporting People of Colour writers (Black, Brown, Yellow, all shades here) and agree that this is also a matter of people suddenly buying books written by People of Colour just for the sake of appearing to support them. The publishing industry is one of the many industries that show a lack of consideration or support toward People of Colour. I thought about whose works I have bought and who in my collection are People of Colour, and I recommend them as reads to everyone.

Tomi Adeyemi. Anita Heiss. Claudia Rankine. Bruce Pascoe. Angie Thomas. Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

It’s not a lot, but I’ve been expanding my reading list with the goal to read more Indigenous Australian works since 2018. A lot of what I’ve read have been textbooks that I do not own but do recommend. I also highly recommend websites owned and managed by Indigenous Australians such as IndigenousX, Common Ground and Kindred Spirits.

Look into it. Do your own research. Stand in solidarity.