It doesn't matter when it is. We have a public holiday for a horse race and a football parade. People don't care, they just want a day off
January 26th 2025
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It doesn't matter when it is. We have a public holiday for a horse race and a football parade. People don't care, they just want a day off
Okay. Then I'll judge that you see people who aren't white as subhuman because Brendon Tarrant and Fraser Anning did and they also don't like leftists voicing their opinions. That's just as valid as claiming everyone who went to a rally today labels those who didn't as "fascists".
Haha, no speeches from me. Just went up the steps after the speeches. Geez it would be hard to guess the crowd size. Very, very large though. Yeah, heaps more that weren't in frame. The march stretched from Spring to Swanston and around the corner, down to near Flinders without a break.Thanks so much
Great to see someone actually go there and experience it, from your position were you a speaker?
What would you estimate the crowd size as? I’m going to assume there are far more people out of shot on either side
No, that's just one reason why protests take place, and I'd argue that in many cases they aren't the most effective way to do that, because the media will usually report negatively on them. Protests can also be about demonstrating how many people show solidarity with a cause, to prove it isn't just the opinion of a small few, but of many people.
And who defines who is a reasonable person? There were a lot of people who were against civil rights protests before the demands were met, and native title, and same-sex marriage, and many other causes. Maybe you think in hindsight they were all not reasonable, but everyone thinks their own stance is reasonable, and at prior points in history, those views were the majority opinion amongst the people.
I have no doubt it would be a waste of your time, but not everyone sees the world the same way as you.
Never is a long time, those people see the argument as necessary even if it doesn't get the result they want, and neither you nor any other one person can decide objectively what is necessary.
People can chew gum and walk at the same time. One can fight for both sovereignty and reconciliation. In fact, sometimes pushing for the more ambitious goal makes the other side more willing to compromise and agree to a less ambitious goal, than if there had been a push for the less ambitious goal to begin with.
South of the Yarra
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As a Stolen Generation Aboriginal, today does cause me to pause for solemn reflection. I think about the brothers and sisters that I never saw again (deep research found they lived sad and tortured lives). I reflect on the fact my birth mother took her own life as her children were taken from her. I reflect on the physical and emotional pain I went through in the 'hell camps' and the incredible journey I have taken to get to where I am today. I reflect on the fact that I don't even know when I was born. I reflect on the little Aboriginal children who are in our families care and the many Aboriginal students we home school. Every day, I tell myself you are not doing enough, you must do more. I torture myself every day trying to figure out how we can close the gap and how we can empower Aboriginal people to take their lives back and be proud of who they are. So many beaten and battered. I pause and contemplate not to be a victim as it has been suggested in the last 5 pages, but to ensure we move forward and never repeat the mistakes of the past. It is fantastic to have a day to celebrate who we are as Australians and that may be many different things to many different people. It is great to have a day where we celebrate all that is great about our country. I just don't understand why it has to be on a date that causes so many Aboriginal people pain.
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Well said brother.
South of the Yarra
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Yes, I am back from the rally. Meant a lot to me.
schneebly111
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That’s a bit more than a few thousand. Must be close to 100,000.
But the Murdoch media told me that 2025 was the year people were sick of wokeness and decided to “celebrate Australia”.
Even at its peak the CBD parade only got 70,000
schneebly111
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10% of the town turned out. Let’s see that percentage turn out for a Union Jack flag waving fest
schneebly111
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Because as Susssssssssan Ley said today Australia in 1788 was as uninhabited by humans as Mars is today.
The awful truth is people on the other side of the debate do not see you as a human.
That thinking won't apply when it comes to changing the date of Australia day. It's so much more political than that. Again, if people don't care as you claim, it would have changed by now. Not sure how you can say people don't care when polls say majority don't want it changed.
She didn't say that though did she.
schneebly111
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It’s even worse:
“In what could be compared to Elon Musk’s Space X’s efforts to build a new colony on Mars, men in boats arrived on the edge of the known world to embark on that new experiment. A new experiment and a new society.”
“the first settlers would be confronted with “a different and strange world, full of danger, adventure and potential”, she said.
“The imperial impulse to extract wealth and rule through naked violence could have been the norm. But that would not be our fate as a nation,” Ley said, per the SMH.
“Despite being a colony built by convict labour, the society our ancestors would build here across our wide brown land would be one in the mould of the liberal tradition.”
At no point did she acknowledge humans beings were living here prior to Jan 26 1788. Just like there are no human beings on Mars.
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What is wrong with you. Show some respect for others.
nobbyiscool
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Maybe she's smarter than anyone gives her credit for.
Forget the Australian public, suck Musk's D so they can get the algorithm onside.
That's strange reasoning in your conclusion. Just because she didn't acknowledge people living on the continent pre colonisation in a short statement doesn't mean she believes that there wasn't Aboriginal existance pre colonisation.
So you think it was just limited to people from Torquay, or also included people from Geelong and other coastal towns?
You do not come across as the sharpest tool.
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Yeah but it’s much easier to play the victim
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South of the Yarra
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Which is exactly what you are doing now.
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Not playing any victim…. I’ve had a great time today so far, done more on Australia Day this year then previously with more to come and still had time to check in on people here… it’s a great time.
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]][emoji[emoji6]]" data-quote="South of the Yarra" data-source="post: 0"
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Not playing any victim…. I’ve had a great time today so far, done more on Australia Day this year then previously with more to come and still had time to check in on people here… it’s a great time.
Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Stay strong bro.
They spoke a lot about the suffering of their ancestors and the ongoing effects on their lives. A few spoke of the solidarity between themselves and other people who have endured suffering like the Palestinians. I think none of that would be very contentious to those who are neither for nor against the cause of First Nations sovereignty.
I suppose a couple of things stood out to me as potentially being contentious.
A few speakers were openly socialist, and spoke of the capitalist system as inherently colonial and exploitative of First Nations people. One went so far as to say everyone participating in the colonial capitalist system was making their living off the backs of Aboriginal people.
I don't think is incorrect exactly, as the Australian economy is indeed built on exploiting mineral and agricultural resources that were gained by a land being stolen, and the people living on that land either being massacred or sent to camps. But, the people who are here now have little choice but to make their living as best they can in a system they didn't create. I can see how people would feel annoyed hearing that their efforts to simply survive in the modern economy with all its cost of living pressures, make them exploiters.
Another speaker was angry that the colonial system had facilitated so much immigration that the country was now overpopulated, creating ecological problems. Some people will agree with that, though I don't, I think our resource-intensive way of living is more to blame for ecological issues, and the feelings of overcrowding are less about the overall number of people in Australia than about how we've failed to distribute the population over more than just the same 5-6 big cities.
My feelings aside, there are a lot of recent immigrants who are made to feel by mainstream discourse like they are at fault for current economic pressures because they emigrated here. Discussions around the downsides of immigration often don't take care to separate the architects of immigration policy from the immigrants themselves and treat them all as the problem. So I can see how recent immigrants would similarly see this as another group blaming them for having the audacity to exist here.
One speaker asked for a million dollars a year for every First Nations person. That simply isn't going to happen. I do think there's an argument for redress of stolen land and cultural destruction, and First Nations people should have more of a say in how money is spent for them than simply being dictated to by governments that were mostly voted in by non-FN people. But that level of spending just isn't going to happen.
But as I said before, this was all being said in a context of pain and trauma from the historical suffering of First Nations people and the problems they still have to live with today. The specific wording isn't that important, the broader points are, that the modern economy still runs on exploiting the environment and the land that was stolen, and First Nations people were never making those decisions or receiving much of the benefits.
Of course they are, and sometimes that's okay. Not every single time and space has to be about changing people's minds. Some events can be simply about centring and listening to First Nations peoples' perspectives, seeing as those perspectives are not given space in mainstream discourse on the other 364 days of the year.
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