On January 26, more than 500 people marched through Melbourne to mark Invasion Day and to call for an end to black deaths in custody and for justice for Mulrunji, who died in the Palm Island police station in November, 2004. Rally chair Brianna Pike announced at the protest that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley would be charged with Mulrunji's manslaughter.
The decision to lay charges is a significant victory for the movement, however as Ray Jackson from the Indigenous Social Justice Association pointed out to the rally, Hurley going to court does not guarantee justice. Jackson cited several examples where cops went to trial as a result of pressure from campaigns, only to be released on technicalities. He also pointed out that one of the principal witnesses in the Mulrunji case was found hanged on January 15. "He'd been threatened by police that if he talked he was dead. He's now dead!", Jackson said.
"We know police kill", Jackson said, graphically describing the murder of 17-year-old TJ Hickey, who was impaled on a fence after being run off the road by a police car while cycling. His death, Jackson said, was ensured by police pulling him off the fence to search him. The officer in charge, Constable Michael Hollingworth, called for back-up before an ambulance and sent a police rescue truck away. This was three years ago but there still hasn't been an inquiry.
"We're sick and tired of the police getting away with murder", Jackson concluded. "We've had nothing but genocide for 219 years."
The theme of genocide was also taken up by Targan, who spoke on behalf of the Black GST campaign. He said that the UN and international law viewed a policy of assimilation as a genocidal act, yet PM John Howard declared that Aboriginal people must assimilate to "Australian" culture.
Targan pointed out that Aboriginal Australians suffer the highest rate of infant mortality in the Western world and black deaths in custody occur at 10 times the national norm, while Indigenous life expectancy was 20 years lower than for other Australians. He pointed out that there are only 140,000 Aboriginal people in Australia today, from a pre-invasion population of more than 6 million.
Targan also said that sovereignty was never ceded, but stolen. He said that 82% of land in Australia is in government hands, and that "It's time, Johnny Howard, to start giving it back".
Jason Tamiru of the Yorta Yorta people told the crowd that Aboriginal people were "sick and tired of being chained to the heel of the oppressor … It's time to stand up!" He called for compensation to be paid for the stolen generations, something that has so far only happened in Tasmania. He also called for the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody, released in 1991, to be implemented.
Referring to those celebrating Australia Day, he said, "You accept us on the Olympic field and on the footy field, when is Australia going to accept Aboriginal people as Aboriginal people? Its time for Australia to make peace with Aboriginal people!"
Rally organiser Greg Fryer said that it was good to see politics back in Survival Day. He read messages of support from the National Tertiary Education Union and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
Other speakers at the event included Jill Webb from Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, Vannessa Hearman from the Socialist Alliance and Robbie Thorpe, who described Australia's post-invasion history as one of biological warfare and concentration camps. "There are more massacre sites in Victoria than Cambodia", he said. The rally then joined the Share the Spirit Survival Day Concert.