The colonization of our lands and lives began with English invasion in 1788. It was an unprovoked and undeclared war that pitted one nation against another nation. 226 years later, that war continues with the Australian colony comfortably playing host to the annual G20 summit.
From Abbott to Obama, leaders of the world’s major economies will meet in Brisbane this November to discuss and determine the global economic agenda. These twenty nation states are responsible for the genocide and dispossession of Indigenous peoples the world over.
Thousands of Aboriginal people converged on Brisbane in 1982 to protest the Stolenwealth Games. Demonstrators demanded recognition of Aboriginal land rights and the abolition of Queensland’s apartheid Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Act. Chants of ‘Land Rights Now’ and ‘Smash the Act’ in Brisbane’s city streets echoed across the continent and around the globe. The whole world was watching.
32 years on from this landmark in the Aboriginal struggle, the G20 summit presents another opportunity for us to have our voices heard on the world stage. Aboriginal people from across the continent will converge on Brisbane to protest this meeting of world leaders. Why? This question finds its roots in our fundamental rights and responsibilities as the Indigenous people of the land they now call ‘Australia’. Our nationalism is the assertion of these rights and responsibilities.
