Indigenous rights activists protest on Australia Day

Australians protest on Australia Day over treatment of Indigenous people, demanding recognition and justice for historic injustices.

Tens of thousands of Australians protested over the treatment of Indigenous people on Sunday (January 26, 2025) as the country celebrated a national holiday marking the 1788 arrival of British colonisers.

Crowds rallied in Sydney, Melbourne and other cities on Australia Day, decrying the high incarceration rates, poor health and historic persecution of the continent's first inhabitants, whose ancestry stretches back 60,000 years.

The January 26 national day commemorates the arrival of a British fleet in Sydney Harbour to establish a penal colony.

For many Australians, it is a day to celebrate with friends and family at beaches and backyard barbecues.

But for rights activists "Invasion Day" marks a period of oppression of Indigenous peoples, including the dispossession of their lands, massacres, and the removal of children from their families.

In Melbourne, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, some brandishing placards proclaiming "Abolish the Date" and "No Pride in Genocide".

"When white people came to Australia, black people started dying. Like, why do you choose that day? It's insane, I don't understand," protester Andrew Baker told AFP.