Australia Day January 26 = Invasion Day, Day of Mourning and Protest
For Indigenous Australians, for whom the date represented invasion and an irrevocable impact upon their culture, land and population, there was no cause for celebration. During the sesquicentenary events in 1938, approximately 100 Aboriginal protesters gathered in Sydney to present a different view of the celebrations. For the protesters and those represented, Australia Day was instead ‘a day of mourning’, highlighting the loss of life, land and language that was a cause of the European occupation of Australia.
