This year’s Invasion Day was a hot, humid day in Queens Park. The freshly repainted statue of Queen Victoria stood above us. The Queen was in black, befitting this day. Although most of the genocide of the first nations people was committed before her reign, not so in Queensland. The native police did their terrible work under a British mandate enacted by the Queensland colonial authority. It was as if a noose had been tied around Victoria’s neck and the weight of 10,000 were pulling her down. We stood patiently in the 38°C heat our bodies pouring with sweat and waving our faces with pieces of paper, fans, hats, whatever.
Solidarity Resources provided sound for the day, gave audio signal and power to local Community Radio 4ZZZ.
Always was, always will be …
Dale Ruska (Stradbroke Island/Yuggerra) framed Australia as a crime scene, tracing colonial violence from Cook’s 1770 observations of Aboriginal fires and the false British claim of terra nullius through military incursions led by Oxley. He recounted the murder of an elder on Minjerribah and Ulipi’s retaliation, the Battle of Big Creek (Anugoray), the Moreton Island massacre, atrocities at Point Lookout, and the “blood-stained sands” at Kanai. Situating these events within 65,000 years of First Nations sovereignty, he connected historical violence to contemporary injustice, citing the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (with hundreds of recommendations unimplemented and at least 600 subsequent deaths), the failed ‘Voice ‘ referendum, Queensland’s repeal of the Pathways to Treaty bill, and the Bondi massacre. He condemned mining and the removal of aboriginal and Palestinian flags, and called for an independent First Nations-led inquiry, justice reinvestment, and decolonization.
4ZZZ broadcast the speeches at Queens Park at https://www.4zzz.org.au/schedule?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Ian Curr
27 Jan 2026
A film sreening of ‘Beyond Invasion‘ on Friday organised by ICRR (Institute of Colaborative Race Research), at their last sunset event has tickets at https://facebook.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=852d9d811ba1f7225b7dd3570&id=98bc6ee412&e=6558fdea38.
On Sunday, 25 Jan 26, the ACRA (Anti Colonial Research Action) is hosting a free film screening of ‘Guniwaya Ngigu – We Fight’.
