Invasion Day actions

ADELAIDE — The Living Waters Revival Concert held here on Invasion Day, January 26, featuring indigenous and multicultural performers looks set to become an annual event.

Continuing the momentum of the Kumarangk (Hindmarsh Island) public meeting and Long Walk, the Kumarangk Coalition and the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Committee in South Australia decided to organise an event modelled on the successful Survival Day concerts in Sydney.

More than 250 people attended the concert to demonstrate their support for the "unite against racism" theme and to enjoy the impressive line-up of local performers. A range of speakers addressed the issues surrounding Invasion Day and the campaign to stop the bridge to Hindmarsh Island.

CANBERRA — One hundred people heard speakers and bands at Old Parliament House, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Aboriginal tent embassy.

Speakers, including Isabel Coe, Bill Cragie and Lyall Munroe, talked about the attacks by police on the Eveleigh Street community in Redfern, the funding cuts to the Redfern Legal Centre, the boycott campaign of the Sydney Olympics and the history of the Aboriginal tent embassy.

The tent embassy has recently established an exhibition centre in the demountable building previously used as the East Timor protest embassy.

PERTH — On the annual Aboriginal Day of Mourning, many Aboriginal people and supporters camped alongside the old Swan Brewery site on the river.

The sacred Waugul site has been the subject of an ongoing battle since the former ALP government leased the site to developers Multiplex and Bluegate in the mid-1980s.

The protest has delayed work being carried out. During the 24-hour camp, approximately 150 visitors passed through the site. Well-known Aboriginal playwright Jack Davis was one of the many attendees, as was WA Greens Senator Dee Margetts.

Since the protest, developers have begun work on a harbour-side jetty. A request by the Nyungar people for an injunction against this work will be considered in a court hearing over the weekend of February 1.

From GLW issue 261