Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Victorian聽Senator Lidia Thorpe told a rally of several hundred on federal Parliament lawns on November 28 that the First Nations and climate movements need to unite to win their just demands for land and a safe climate.
鈥淲e need to unite the climate movement with the First Nations movement. We all need to be in solidarity together, and we are rising, stronger than ever before,鈥 Thorpe said.
Thorpe told the rally she had the 鈥渄ay off鈥 because she had been suspended from the Senate, her workplace, for calling out racism.
Thorpe was suspended after she called out Pauline Hanson鈥檚聽racism the previous day.
鈥淭his is a very racist, divided country,鈥 Thorpe said. 鈥淭here will be no peace without justice. We want peace and we want our land back.鈥
Thorpe鈥檚 protest had been organised to promote her , but it joined with the Canberra Wave of the Rising Tide People鈥檚 Blockade, which began in Muloobinba/Newcastle and continued on to Parliament.
Thorpe鈥檚 bill, which was co-sponsored by Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman, aims to change the law on genocide to ensure justice for all victims and survivors of genocide, here and overseas.
Currently, the federal attorney-general has the power to veto any prosecution of genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity from proceeding in courts.
Other speakers included Aboriginal representatives from Western Australia, campaigning in support of six missing Indigenous boys from the Kimberley region. They are demanding action on the human rights of Indigenous youth from the federal and WA governments.
Mussa Hijazi, a Palestinian-Australian lawyer from the ACT, said: 鈥淭he long history of genocide against Aboriginal people in this country has been hidden for too long. It is the same in Palestine today.
鈥淥ur task is to hold the politicians to account. It鈥檚 up to us to speak up about the brutal history of genocide in this country and in Palestine right now,鈥 Hijazi said.
Representatives from the Sikh nation, the colonised people of West Papua and Kanaky/New Caledonia also spoke about their own struggles for self-determination, while also expressing their solidarity with the struggle of First Peoples here.