Thousands of First Nations people and non-Indigenous protestors marched through Melbourne on Friday,calling for Aboriginal land rights,lower incarceration rates and tweaks to Victoria’s truth-telling process.
For some younger people,it was their first march from the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service in Fitzroy through Melbourne’s CBD as part of NAIDOC week,and for others it was a return of the rally after the pandemic cancelled it for two years.
The march stopped at key intersections for dance and speeches including at Parliament House,the intersection of Bourke and Swanston streets and Flinders Street Station.
This NAIDOC week’s theme,“get up,stand up,show up”,represents a change for Professor Henry Atkinson,a Woolithiga man,who recalls a different era where he felt he was told to “shut up” because “nobody would want to listen”.
Atkinson,the Victorian NAIDOC elder for 2022,said there had been a change since Victoria’s Yoorrook Justice Commission,but he called for it to go further and hear from non-Indigenous views as well.
“Why should we be telling the truth when we didn’t perpetuate all those masacres and taking of land,or stealing of children or jailing the young generations?” Atkinson said.
“I don’t see any truth coming from anybody except setting up arrangements to have the truth telling.”
Alister Thorpe,a Gunai,Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara man,who marched with son Willun,reflected on growing up dancing in front of parliament at earlier protests.
“We got taken to these marches to fight for our rights since we were born really,and it’s the legacy of our people,our past leaders who have done that too,” Alister said.
Willun said support at the rally from non-Indigenous people made this year’s protest feel different,while he called for “more rights,a property treaty and sovereignty” for Aboriginal people.
Latoya Baker,a Kalkadoon Kanju woman from northern Queensland,attended her sixth NAIDOC march since becoming a Melbourne resident and was relieved it returned after a two-year hiatus.
She called for action on high incarceration rates of First Nations people and improved support programs to prevent Aboriginal people entering the justice system.
“There’s transgenerational trauma. Lots of things have happened to our mob. Rather than lock them up and throw away the key,actually support them,” Baker said.