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By Mick White BRISBANE — Thousands of Aboriginal people and their supporters gathered to commemorate Invasion Day at concerts and rallies in cities around Australia on January 26. The activities marked the 208th anniversary of white invasion and emphasised the past, present and future survival of Aboriginal people and their culture. At a 500-strong rally in the Roma Street Forum in Brisbane, Aboriginal leader Les Malezer described January 26 as a day of mourning for Aboriginal people and called on the federal government to propose a new date for Australia Day which all Australians could celebrate. He also spoke about the failure of the Mabo legislation to provide access to land rights, arguing that the only land granted to Aborigines was land that no-one else wanted. Malezer has recently called for the replacement of the Native Title Act 1993, which he says is inadequate as a political response to the High Court's Mabo decision. Well-known Aboriginal activist Sam Watson told the crowd that Aboriginal people are "hostages to a political system over which we have no control". He talked about the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which made 339 recommendations, "yet the deaths in custody and the process of genocide go on". Watson's remarks follow the recent announcement of investigations into the continuing high levels of deaths in custody by both Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Also addressing the rally, Alice Beckett condemned the state Labor government's failure to compensate Aborigines for wages stolen from them by administrators who were given control of their bank accounts under the infamous 1897 act. The government has been intractable in its refusal to compensate Aboriginal people for these wages, which have been either misappropriated by corrupt "protectors" or funnelled into consolidated revenue to be used for other purposes. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission has recently approved funding for a legal challenge over the issue.