Australia Day sees 'Invasion Day' rallies, anti-immigration protests

SYDNEY - Thousands marked Australia’s national day on Jan 26 by attending “Invasion Day” rallies in support of Indigenous Australians and calling for unity, while separate anti-immigration protests also drew crowds.

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Australia Day commemorates the day Britain established the state of New South Wales as a penal colony, with the arrival in Sydney of ships bringing colonists and convicts.

However, for many Indigenous Australians, who make up about 4 per cent of the country’s 27 million people, the holiday is known as “Invasion Day” and marks the destruction of their cultures by European settlers.

At Sydney’s Hyde Park, the annual “Invasion Day” rally started at 10am local time with a tribute to those killed by a gunman in a New South Wales rural town last week.