The Australian flag has been covered in blood and burned at a series of anti-monarchy rallies across the country.
Protesters at Melbourne’s Birrarung Marr cut up the flag and covered it in fake blood, while chanting “abolish the monarchy” in confronting scenes.
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe led hundreds of protesters of all ages and backgrounds taking a stand against colonisation on the Queen’s National Day of Mourning.
“The Crown’s boot is on our neck and we’re sick of it,” Senator Thorpe told the rally.
“Do you know we have over 20,000 Aboriginal children who have been stolen in 2022? And you want to mourn the coloniser who brought the pain and the genocide and the murders here to our people. Shame!”
The crowd then sat at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets while clutching Aboriginal flags and anti-monarchy signs, before marching to state parliament.
Senator Thorpe decried countless atrocities and human rights violations against First Nations people, and the high incarceration rates among Indigenous youths.
“While everyone mourns the Queen, we have 10-year-old babies trying to take their lives in Don Dale prison. We have to shut the child prisons down,” she said.
In 2007, Indigenous youths accounted for 59 per cent of the total juvenile detention population, according to government records.
Last year, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners made up 30 per cent of all prisoners.
The protests come amid calls for the Victorian government to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14.
The Melbourne rally was one of multiple protests in Australia on Thursday.
In Adelaide, a man was removed from Government House after he was heard chanting anti-monarchy slogans.
Police asked the 31-year-old, from Mile End, to leave the area, but he refused.
He was escorted from the premises and issued with a trespass notice not to re-enter the area for 24 hours.
In Brisbane, a small but passionate group of protesters demanded an end to what they called centuries of British “tyranny” and burned the Australian flag.
“We don’t need the numbers, we just need the passion,” one protester called.
Activist groups Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) and Fighting In Solidarity Towards Treaties are among those organising the demonstrations.
“This is a stance against the continued crimes committed against marginalised First Nations, black, brown and Asian communities. We do not support benefactors or Stolenwealth (sic) and demand justice, truth and accountability for all. Justice for all,” WAR wrote on Facebook.
“This is a demonstration against racist colonial imperialism.”
Another rally is also underway in Sydney.
