Thousands of Australians yesterday protested the anniversary of British colonization of their nation, with large crowds urging for Australia Day to be moved and for a day of mourning on the holiday some call “Invasion Day.”
The holiday marks the arrival of 11 British ships carrying convicts at Port Jackson in present-day Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788. For many, the day marked the beginning of a sustained period of discrimination and expulsion of Indigenous people from their land without a treaty.
Thousands of people, many of whom waved Indigenous flags, rallied in front of the Victoria State Parliament in Melbourne, calling for an official day of mourning to be declared across Australia. Roads and tram lines were shut down for more than four hours.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Large crowds in Sydney chanted for the Australia Day date to be moved. Thousands of protesters also rallied in Brisbane and the second day of Australia’s Test cricket match against the West Indies was briefly disrupted by demonstrators.
Major sports have stopped calling the holiday Australia Day, and the Australian Football League Players’ Association, several clubs and hockey teams have called for the date to change.
Two monuments symbolizing Australia’s colonial past were damaged in Melbourne on Thursday. A statue of British naval officer James Cook, who in 1770 charted Sydney’s coast, was sawn off at the ankles, and a Queen Victoria monument was doused in red paint.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented 3.8 percent of Australia’s population of 26 million in 2021, according to an Australian Bureau of Statistics census. Indigenous people are the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.
Tensions are high after Australian voters in October last year resoundingly rejected a referendum to create an advocacy committee to offer advice to parliament on policies that affect Indigenous people. The government had proposed the first constitutional change since 1977 as a step forward in Indigenous rights.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said that the national day was an opportunity for Australians to “pause and reflect on everything that we have achieved as a nation.”
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS