Black Lives Matter Rally and Vigil Attracts Tens of Thousands to Sydney CBD

Ellie Stephenson Reports.

Around 40 000 people gathered in the Sydney CBD this afternoon to protest police brutality, deaths in custody and mourn the deaths of Black and Indigenous people in Australia and the USA. The protest inolved a number of speeches from First Nations activists outside Town Hall before marching to Belmore Park via Goulburn and Elizabeth Streets. Participants kneeled for a minute at 4:30pm in memory of George Floyd, who died at the hands of Minneapolis police last week. 

While the protest was initially illegal according to the ruling of Justice Desmond Fagan last night, a last minute appeal approved the protest after thousands had already gathered. The sense of defiance was palpable; it was clear that a majority of the tens of thousands of attendees had planned to attend the protest whether it was legal or not. Justice Fagan’s desire to give police “full power to enforce the Public Health Act” and “defer” civil rights to protest, alongside comments insulting the protest organisers made by Police Minister David Elliott, seemed, if anything, to motivate people to attend. 

Protestors travelling to the event via public transport were faced with delays and the closure of Town Hall station, forcing them to walk from nearby stations like Central and Museum. This was widely criticised as an attempt to stymie attendance, and was particularly difficult to justify once the Court of Appeal endorsed people’s right to attend the event. 

Given the huge numbers of people in attendance, the police presence was drastically outnumbered for much of the event, although a police helicopter hovered overhead for the duration of the protest. Indeed, had the protest been illegal it would have been impossible for the police to break up the rally without violence. Despite this, protestors were very peaceful, with limited altercations with police. However, a spontaneous march near Central Station after the main event attracted a disproportionate number of riot squad officers, who appeared to hem in protestors. Police were later seen roughly arresting people inside Central Station and pepper spraying non-violent protestors, blocking the Railway Square exit. Unsurprisingly, this escalation only occurred once much of the crowd had left the vicinity, rendering the remaining protestors more vulnerable. 

Notably, police were visibly not following social distancing regulations, with officers standing close together and not wearing masks. This was especially jarring given a key premise for the government attempting to stop the protest was public health.The bulk of the protestors, however, were wearing masks, with rally marshals distributing surgical masks and hand sanitiser throughout the crowd. Social distancing was difficult given the huge size of the crowd, but the rally organisers had attempted to account for it. 

The speeches at the start of the rally centred around calls for real justice for Indigenous people. Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovenor, a Gadigal, Dharug and Yuin Elder, welcomed the crowd to country and Aunty Leetona Dungay mourned the death in custody of her son, David Dungay. The message was clear: the police and prison systems need to be held accountable for their role in killing and oppressing First Nations and African American people. 

The crowd’s chants included “Whose lives matter? Black lives matter!”, “No justice, no peace, no racist police”, “Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land”, and “Too many coppers, not enough justice”. People held signs showing the names of victims of police brutality in both the USA and Australia, bearing the slogan Black Lives Matter, and calling for the government to defund the police and hold them to account.  The crowd, which was largely wearing black in remembrance of Black and First Nations deaths, was diverse but generally young. Early on, a group of young people climbed onto the roof of Town Hall Woolworths, encouraging the crowd to shout ‘Black Lives Matter’. 

As protests occurred around the country, the rally and vigil were boldly defiant of attempts by the NSW Government and Police Commissioner to silence the obvious rage and grief of First Nations people. Although many protests about Indigenous justice attract fairly small crowds, it is clear that the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA has strengthened existing anger at the police and encouraged activism on the cause. With the size of the protests nationally, it may be likely that the desire for meaningful change continues to attract momentum.