When
Where
Why
Black Lives Still Matter Rally: Still Here, Still Fighting.
It has been three years since the mass BLM rally in Sydney, where the same stories of racial discrimination and police brutality in the US were also experienced in so-called Australia. Since then, the nation has heard more stories of police brutality, violent racism and institutional abuse against Indigenous people.
The need to take back the streets in protest is vital in ensuring that First Nations people don't remain statistics in the national mind and that the families and communities of victims killed in custody feel solidarity in demanding accountability and justice. The current protests in France following the police killing of a young man of colour reminds us that Australia so too has bloody hands.
We cannot wait for January 26th to mobilise once again. As days pass, young First Nations children are being abused and denied their basic rights in juvenile detention whilst Blak men and women are dying in prisons, with the media turning a blind eye. As our people are being violated, so too are our land, waters and skies. We have another government that is continuing to expand harmful coal, oil and gas projects on Country, exploding sacred landscapes for harmful extraction.
Black Lives Still Matter. Black Land Still Matters. The momentum of the 2020/2021 BLM movement and protests needs to be reignited. First Nations communities are not granted the privilege to stop the fight and rest. Blak bodies being murdered by police, abused in prisons and brutalised on the streets is far too familiar for our people, there is no rest, no absence of the trauma and injustice the settler colony creates. We are victims of a war, it began during first colonial contact and it is ongoing through the institutional racism and societal violence we are subjected to.
First Nations community leaders, activists, victim families and the young mob are calling this rally for justice. We can not be complacent in Australia's violence and this rally will demand an end to the war on Black people and lands.
Black lives are STILL being killed and oppressed yet Black lives are STILL here and STILL fighting. Black lives mattered three years ago and they STILL matter in 2023. Demand an end to the war on Blacks. Demand accountability so that our communities and families don't have to live in fear. Demand justice.
* This rally is not associated with the Voice To Parliament or a 'Yes' or 'No' campaign and welcomes ALL who consider themsleves allies regardless of their opinions on the matter. The organisers reflect a diverse range of views, however, collectively demand immediate justice for First Nations people and land.
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