Thousands protest "Invasion Day" across Australia
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Protesters participate in the Treaty Before Voice Invasion Day Protest outside Parliament House on Thursday, Jan. 26 in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Thousands of Australians protested Thursday the Australia Day national holiday marking the anniversary of a British fleet landing in the country for the first time on Jan. 26, 1788.
Why it matters: There are calls to change the date of the annual event that's also known as "Invasion Day," because of the devastating impact colonialism and its racist legacy had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who'd lived in the country for tens of thousands of years before the British arrived — or abolish it altogether.
- This year's protests are particularly poignant because of an upcoming referendum on whether to enshrine in the Australian constitution an Indigenous voice to Parliament.
Context: Australian Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney has said the Indigenous voice to Parliament would enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide advice at all government levels on laws and policies affecting their lives and address longstanding "housing, health and educational" disparities and incarceration and child removal," per the Guardian.
Of note: Some speakers at Thursday's Invasion Day protests in central Sydney dismissed the proposed Indigenous voice to Parliament as a "box-ticking exercise" that would not result in any meaningful changes, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
In photos: Invasion Day protests
