Thousands protest Australia Day in Brisbane

Speakers, including a number of elders and leaders from the Brisbane Indigenous community, called for the abolishment of Australia Day as it has been celebrated in recent decades, along with land rights and justice reform.

“This day here needs to be resisted. We need solutions for our people,” Yugambeh poet and activist Lionel Fogarty told the crowd.

Many chided Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who drew criticism last week over comments that the circumstances of Australia’s settlement on January 26, 1788, had been difficult for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians alike.

Wayne Wharton, another organiser, gave an impassioned call for justice for a young Indigenous boy who died in the back of a day care bus in Cairns last year.

“We…