Day of Mourning

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Proclamation of the Day of Mourning.

The Day of Mourning was an Aboriginal protest day on January 26, 1938 , marking the 150th anniversary of British colonization of Australia. This day should be a protest against 150 years of inhuman treatment and the seizure of Aboriginal land, which contrasts with the official Australia Day , which is celebrated by the European people on the same day.

politics

The protest on that day was jointly organized and carried out by the Australian Aboriginal League (AAL) by William Cooper and the Aboriginal Progressive Association (APA) by Jack Patten . In 1888, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary, the Aboriginal leaders had merely boycotted this Australian holiday. However, in their boycott they overlooked the fact that the press ignored this form of protest.

The two organizations had sent letters of protest to the governments of Australia and England, as well as to the Aboriginal parliamentary body, in the early 1930s. These were ignored or rejected for no reason; No protest was to King George V passed. Based on this experience, they planned an event to mark the 150th anniversary that neither the media nor the government could ignore. This was the plan that was carried out despite several attempts at intimidation by the New South Wales Police at public meetings of the time.

Although APA's protest notes were rejected, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons met with Day of Mourning leaders on January 25 without other official government and press officials. Some reporters preferred, despite Lyon's request, to cover Pastor Doug Nicholls, who was a referee for Australian football.

Events in 1938

The day started with a march through the streets of Sydney that was attended by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. The march began at the Sydney City Hall and that was where the main event of the day was to take place, the Day of Mourning Congress, a political meeting attended by numerous Aboriginal leaders such as Pearl Gibbs and Margaret Tucker . The protesters originally intended to hold the congress in the town hall, but this was refused, so it was held in the Cyprus Hellene Club - Australian Hall building on Elizabeth Street. The convention was only open to Aboriginal people, of whom about 1,000 were in attendance. This gathering was the first massive gathering for the human and land rights of Aboriginal Australians.

The APA and AAL distributed a manifesto Aboriginal Claim Citizens Rights at the gathering , prepared by Patten and William Fergusen. This manifesto began with the words: “ This festival of 150 years' so-called 'progress' in Australia commemorates also 150 years of misery and degradation imposed on the original native inhabitants by white invaders of this country ” (This 150th anniversary celebration , the so-called progress in Australia, also commemorates 150 years of misery and humiliation imposed on the original inhabitants by the white invaders of this country).

The following resolution was passed unanimously at the Congress:

“WE, representing THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA, assembled in Conference at the Australian Hall, Sydney, on the 26th day of January, 1938, this being the 150th anniversary of the whitemen's seizure of our country, HEREBY MAKE PROTEST against the callous treatment of our people by the whitemen in the past 150 years, AND WE APPEAL to the Australian Nation to make new laws for the education and care of Aborigines, and for a new policy which will raise our people to FULL CITIZEN STATUS and EQUALITY WITHIN THE COMMUNITY. "

(WE represent THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA, gathered at the conference at the Australian Hall in Sydney on January 26th, 1938. This is the 150th anniversary of the white people's confiscation of our land and HEREBY we PROTEST against the inhumane treatment of our people by the whites for the past 150 years, AND WE APPEAL on the Australian nation to implement new Aboriginal Education and Welfare Laws and policies that will elevate our people to FULL CIVIL RIGHTS and EQUALITY IN THE COMMUNITY.)

Official celebration

The government of New South Wales had planned to repeat the arrival of the First Fleet in Port Jackson with the participation of Aborigines on Australia Day . Aboriginal political organizations in Sydney had refused to participate in the official celebration. The government then brought a group of Aborigines from a reservation in the west of the state to Sydney. The men stayed in police barracks in Redfern and on Australia Day they were taken to the beach at Farm Cove, where they were supposed to run along the beach to give the impression that they were going to flee for fear of the glorious British.

This repetition in this form generated severe criticism from the protesters, who were forbidden to visit the Aborigines in Redfern. The Sydney press ignored this issue and was more upset that convicts were not featured in the ceremony.

Later development

The Day of Mourning protests had lasted on Australia Day since 1938 and that day was accepted in 1940. In later years, January 26 protests were carried out using other terms such as Invasion Day and Survival Day , which are much more popular in Australia.

In 1998, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Day of Mourning, 400 protesters held a silent march on the original route and the ten injustices of the Congress Manifesto were reaffirmed.

This re-performance was combined with the demand for the preservation of the Australian Hall, the site of the 1938 Congress. The New South Wales government had ordered it to be preserved, but allowed all changes except the facade of the building. The building is now protected in all of its parts and entered on the Australian National Heritage List .

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