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Australia has a long history of racism and police brutality.
Guardian Australia reports there have been at least 434 Aboriginal deaths in custody since 1991.
On Saturday, June 6, 2020 protests took place around the country to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, which was recently reignited by the death of 47-year-old, George Floyd.
Floyd died after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for nine minutes.
In Sydney, the government took protest organisers to court citing Covid-19 and social distancing concerns.
On Friday, the protest was ruled illegal, however minutes before the Saturday start time, an appeal by protest organisers was successful.
Regardless of the ruling, over 20000 people turned up at Town Hall to march against police brutality and Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Only 10000 had been expected.
There was a bottleneck while protesters waited to begin, despite Sydney Trains temporarily closing Town Hall Station.
The majority of attendees wore masks, and volunteers squirted hand sanitiser at regular checkpoints along the walk to Belmore Park.
Coronavirus was far from people’s minds though, with many claiming racism is the real pandemic, and one protester explaining, “history is never convenient”.
Action:
Donate to Reconciliation Australia.
Read Guardian Australia’s article about Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Subscribe to Always was, always will be our stories podcast.
Check out Bello Collective’s ’21 Podcasts That Confront Racism in America’.
