SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) —Thousands of people rallied in cities across Australia demanding justice and rights for indigenous peoples on Monday, a national holiday marking the 1788 arrival of a British fleet in Sydney Harbor.

Crowds took to the streets in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and other cities on Australia Day, many with banners proclaiming: “Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.” 

In Sydney, police allowed the protests to go ahead despite new curbs introduced after gunmen opened fire on a Jewish Hanukkah festival on Bondi Beach on 14 December, killing 15 people.

Millions of Australians celebrate the annual holiday with beers and backyard barbecues or a day by the sea, and this year a broad heatwave was forecast to push the temperature in South Australian capital Adelaide to 45C.

Shark sightings forced people out of the water at several beaches in and around Sydney, however, after a string of shark attacks in the region this month — including one that led to the death of a 12-year-old boy.

Many activists describe the 26 January 1788, British landing as “Invasion Day,” a moment that ushered in a period of oppression, lost lands, massacres and indigenous children being removed from their families.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples make up about four percent of the population.

They still have a life expectancy eight years shorter than other Australians, higher rates of incarceration and deaths in custody, steeper youth unemployment and poorer education.

Anti-immigration protests

“Let’s celebrate on another day, because everyone loves this country and everyone wants to celebrate. But we don’t celebrate on a mourning day,” indigenous man Kody Bardy, 44, told Agence France-Presse in Sydney.

Another indigenous protester in Sydney, 23-year-old Reeyah Dinah Lotoanie, called for people to recognize that a genocide happened in Australia. 

“Ships still came to Sydney and decided to kill so many of our people,” she said.

Separately, thousands of people joined anti-immigration “March for Australia” protests in several cities, with police in Melbourne mobilizing to keep the two demonstrations apart.