Marking the invasion of the First Nation communities in Australia in 1788, Eelam Tamils marched in solidarity with Aboriginal communities to commemorate the genocidal abuse suffered and continuing abuses by Australia’s government.
The Guardian notes that the total death toll from recorded massacres in Victoria is 1,186. The total death toll from frontier violence remains unknown but the University of Newcastle has identified 311 massacre sites in Australia from 1788 to 1930.
Massacre sites remain scattered across numerous states including Victoria: Murdering Flats, Chimney Pots, Murdering Gully, Fighting Hills, Aire River, Snowy River, Mount Eccles, Mount Napier, and many more.
Speaking to the Guardian Sydney City councillor Yvonne Weldon maintained the need to commemorate this violence:
“Not out of a guilt, but to right the wrongs of the past, not to continue to be in our present,” she said. “If we don’t, we will never truly create an all-embracing future.”
“What took place was genocide, irreversible trauma,” she said.
“Poisons, not just in our waterholes but others had in their hands, that later became placed in ours. The trauma and the introductions of new ways of living hasn’t been healthy for all ... as the world’s oldest living culture ... despite these traumas and shifts in our way of living, we are still here, still practising, still inclusive.”
Whilst protests were scaled back due to concerns due to concerns over a spike in Omicron cases, there were demonstrations in Sydney chanting “too many coppers, not enough justice” and holding signs which read, “it started with invasion and massacres – It continues with deaths in custody”.
Speaking to the Tamil Guardian, Renuga Inpakumar from Tamil Refugee Council said:
“Being someone who is a part of the Eelam Tamil community and who has also faced cultural genocide from the Sri Lankan government with the help of the Australian Government I stood in the streets chanting and feeling the pain of the Aboriginal community around me but also realising that resistance should be felt all around the Eelam Tamil diaspora to draw awareness that genocide is real and has an effect on all”
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