“Bring the children home”: Aboriginal activists march across Sydney’s CBD
By ANGIRA BHARADWAJ
Aboriginal activists completed a march across Sydney’s Central Business District on Saturday 10 December, marking International Human Rights Day.
The protest was initiated by the Sydney branch of Grandmothers Against Removals, and focused predominantly on the forced removal of Aboriginal children and Aboriginal deaths in custody.
The chairperson of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Ken Canning, spoke at the march. Mr Canning said human rights groups needed to come together in fighting the government’s policies.
“This can be the start of something that we can turn into a large movement that will carry on for the next couple of years.
“We’ve been fighting this for 229 years and I say to other groups, join with us in the fight. Join us and we as a large group of people break this system,” he said.
The protest followed the 2016 Social Justice and Native Title report released last week by the Australian Human Rights Commission. The report indicated the growing numbers of Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Mr Canning also addressed this trend during his speech outside Customs House in Circular Quay, the starting point of the march where 1500 people gathered.
“Dylan Voller has now been placed in an institution where his torturers, who have been captured on camera, are still in his presence.
“There were four main aggressors that were caught on camera, why are they still working?” he said.
Mr Canning’s comments came just days before Mr Voller revealed disturbing details of his treatment inside Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre to the Royal Commission on Monday 12 December 2016.
Greens Member for Newtown, Jenny Leong, said investigations such as the Royal Commission are not sufficient when dealing with Indigenous human rights issues.
“The struggle for Indigenous justice in this country has gone on for far too bloody long.
“All they [the government] do is propose another bloody inquiry. Well we can tell them today you don’t need another inquiry into what happened in Don Dale. You don’t need an inquiry into the fact that 50 per cent of young children and young people in New South Wales prisons are Aboriginal.
“You don’t need an inquiry into that, you need a change in the system,” she said.
Ms Leong said the Greens are committed to supporting Indigenous human rights groups in seeking justice.
“We must remain in our struggle until that justice is realised,” she said.
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