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SYDNEY (Reuters) - As Australia prepares for its national day of festivities on Jan. 26, Indigenous woman Rita Wright will be protesting the celebrations at a march in Sydney.
Australia Day marks the date the British fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour in 1788 to start a penal colony, viewing the land as unoccupied despite encountering settlements.
For Wright, holding national celebrations on the highly sensitive date reinforces a legacy of mistreatment of Indigenous people. She said the date of the national holiday should be changed.
“I always thought Captain Cook owned this land and not the Aboriginal people,” said Wright, referring to the British explorer who mapped Australia’s eastern coastline in 1770, paving the way for the establishment of the colony.