"One of the reasons why Aboriginal people must continue to march is to protest against that wall of white lies, for the real black truth," Sam Watson, Aboriginal activist and Brisbane Invasion Day rally organiser, told NITV News ahead of January 26.
"Black Australia does not have one single reason to celebrate January 26," said Mr Watson.
"January 26 is day one of the illegal invasion of our sacred tribal land, and day one of the beginning of a mass campaign of terrorism and slaughter that continues to this very day."
Protestors are marching in around Australia on Tuesday to send the message that Aboriginal people "never ceded their sovereignty to Britain when settlers arrived on the eastern shores of the continent on January 26, 228 years ago."
In , the protest organised by the Redfern Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the Indigenous Social Justice Association, will start at The Block in the inner west suburb of Redfern and proceed to the CBD where the Sydney City Council has planned Australia Day celebrations.
"We will not be disrupting their events nor calling for a boycott," the organisers say on the national Invasion Day Facebook page. "Yet we will inform all concerned people along the way of the true history of Invasion Day."
Protestors are also calling for: a stop to deaths in custody; community control over Commonwealth funding; a stop to the potential closures of Aboriginal communities; no Constitutional recognition and a stop to the government's intended cashless welfare program. They are also calling for justice for the families of the three children in Bowraville, NSW, whose murderer has not yet been sentenced.
A silent march in Sydney from Town Hall to the Australian Hall will re-enact the January 26, 1938, Day of Mourning peaceful protest.
Jack Patten a co-organiser of the event was quoted as saying in 1938 that the Day of Mourning was "organised by the Aborigines Progressive Association to call for improved civil rights including raising Aboriginal people to full citizenship status and equality within the community."
The Sydney Invasion Day protest , "The organising committee encourages everyone to bring wreaths and other tokens of respect to remember and honour all of the great warriors of the past that have struggled for justice."
A picture of protestors on the Day of Mourning on January 26 in 1938 (Facebook). Source: Facebook
Protests are also occurring in Canberra, Melbourne and Portland in Victoria, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Inala in Queensland, and Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand.
