Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader
On this day across the nation, Aboriginal people mourn the loss of their country.
In lutruwita/Tasmania, the Greens mourn with the proud and resilient Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
Today is no cause for celebration. It‘s a shameful day that marks the beginning of a brutal colonisation and dispossession of First Nations people.
Today’s online Invasion Day rally was as powerful as every other mass gathering of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Tasmanians who march the streets on this day demanding justice.
On behalf of the Greens, I want to thank the organisers of, and participants in, today’s deeply moving event, based at piyura kitina/Risdon Cove and broadcast far and wide.
Truth, Treaty, justice, the return of lands and changing the date of the national day are core to true reconciliation.
Political and community leaders who resist changing the date are on the wrong side of history.
More and more Tasmanians recognise it’s well past time to change the date.
The Greens acknowledge the potential for real progress towards Truth Telling and Treaty as a result of the Premier’s engagement of Professors Kate Warner and Tim McCormack to map out a path forward.
After centuries of attempted genocide, racism and enduring injustice, there is cause for hope in lutruwita.
The lutruwita/Tasmanian Greens will stand alongside, and will be entirely guided by, Tasmanian Aboriginal people at every step on the path to Truth, Treaty, justice, and the return of lands.