More than 3000 people gathered outside Sydney Town Hall on November 2 to call for justice for 15-year-old Cassius Turvey. Isaac Nellist reports.
vigil
Refugee activists in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney held protest vigils for Salim Kyawmin, an elderly Rohingya man who died on Manus Island on May 22. The largest action was in Melbourne where 200 people occupied the streets for a short, time stopping traffic. In Perth refugee activists occupied the department of Immigration, making flowers and in Brisbane a protest was held in front of Peter Duttons office.
Four hundred people came out on June 13 for the Newtown vigil for the victims of the Orlando massacre and to stand up against homophobia, transphobia, bigotry and hatred.
Speakers condemned it as a hate crime but rejected attempts by politicians and conservative media to turn this into an excuse for escalating hate campaigns against Muslims and justifying imperial wars in the Middle East. The vigil was organised by Defend Safe Schools and was endorsed by a broad range of organisations.
A vigil was held in Sydney on May 4 in solidarity with Hodan Yasin, a 19-year-old Somali asylum seeker.
She is in a critical condition after setting herself on fire in Australia's notorious offshore refugee detention centre on the Pacific island state of Nauru.
Just a few days before people had assembled in the same spot in Sydney Town Hall square for a vigil for Omid, a young Iranian asylum seeker who died after also setting himself on fire in Nauru.
