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ABC News
ABC News
National
Indigenous communities reporter Nakari Thorpe

Indigenous groups say protests will raise 'silenced' voices on Queen Elizabeth II's Day of Mourning

As Australia falls silent for a minute to mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Lizzie Jarrett will be raising her voice. 

"We're being told it's inappropriate to speak out about our rights right now, we've been told to be silent for so, so long," Ms Jarrett said.

Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung and Dunghutti woman, Ms Jarrett, said she felt "sick" hearing about the National Day of Mourning.

"Once you got around the initial hurt and pain, you realise that of course Australia is going to follow suit, [but] it's 2022, why are we still under the Crown," she said. 

She is not alone. 

Organisers of the "Abolish the Monarchy" protests are hoping to take the day to draw attention to injustices inflicted upon Indigenous Australians. 

The Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) and The Fighting in Solidarity Towards Treaties group (FISTT) will be holding protests across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. 

Rallies are also expected to be held in Canberra and South Australia. 

FISTT spokesperson and NSW Greens Upper House candidate Lynda-June Coe it is more than just dissent.

"It's become very blatantly clear that since the death of Queen Elizabeth that Indigenous responses and experiences to colonisation and dispossession have been largely erased," she said. 

"Resistance in this country has never ended, neither has the war against our people." 

'Our story continues to be erased'

Ms Coe, a Wiradjuri and Badu Island woman, said the sudden declaration of a Day of Mourning for the late monarch has been "a real insult to First Nations people". 

"Our mob have been calling for our Day of Mourning to be recognised for over 80 years, since 1938," she said. 

"It really does show that there are two sides of this story and ours unfortunately continues to be silenced and erased completely." 

On January 26, 1938, a group of Aboriginal men and women gathered at Australia Hall in Sydney. 

It was the first national gathering "of Indigenous people protesting against the prejudice and discrimination", according to the National Museum of Australia. 

Sandy O'Sullivan, a Wiradjuri professor of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University, said there is a lack of understanding of why Indigenous people are in opposition to the day. 

Professor O'Sullivan said the idea of expecting Indigenous people around the world to feel completely comfortable around celebrating the Queen's life and to participate in it is "outrageous." 

"There was this sense of 'just shut up and mourn along' and if we weren't doing that then somehow, we were traitors," they said. 

"This was someone who did have leadership of this country, and to suggest that she was just a figurehead who we should be celebrating just forgets that this was somebody who had a lot of power and chose not to use it in important ways." 

For Ms Coe, the death of the longest-reigning monarch should re-start the conversation about Australia's Independence.

"At the forefront of that we're demanding First Nations sovereignty be addressed and more importantly realised," she said.

"We can't move forward as a nation if we still have underlying, unfinished business."

Ms Jarrett will be making sure she is including in that debate.

"[It's] about our voices being elevated, being platformed, and being heard."

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