Massacres and protest: Australia Day’s undeniable history | Australia news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/24/massacres-protest-australia-day-undeniable-history
On 26 January 1838, a group of mounted police under the instruction of the colonial government led a surprise attack on a camp of Kamilaroi people at Waterloo Creek in northern New South Wales, killing at least 40.
It was the 50th anniversary of the planting of the Union Jack in Sydney Cove. As the massacre took place, a celebratory regatta was held in Sydney, 480km away, to mark the colony’s jubilee.
One hundred years later, on 26 January 1938, a date by then called Australia Day, a group of 100 mostly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, led by the Aborigines Progressive Association, met at Australian Hall in Sydney for a day of mourning protest and passed a resolution calling for equal rights. On the harbour, the city welcomed tall ships to mark the sesquicentenary of British colonisation.
