A collection of grassroots Noongar community members and groups are coming together to host a rally against settler colonialism this 26 January.

The rally is urging people to gather and resist settler colonialism and commemorate the resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

The event is organised by the WA Black Greens members Uncle Hedley Hayward, Uncle Herbert Bropho, Fabian Yarran and the grassroots Elders network.

“Colonisation is not merely an historical fact, but an ongoing process of oppression of Indigenous Australians through; criminalisation, punitive drug laws, Western Australia’s highest incarceration rate of indigenous people in the world, child removals, co-opting Aboriginal elites and organizations, and the ongoing cultural genocide through the destruction of Indigenous sacred sites in the pursuit of mining profits,” the group said in a statement to media.

“These problems have known solutions, but the government chooses to protect corporate mining interests rather then implement them. The system is not broken, settler colonialism is working as intended.”

The group have put forward a range of recommendations, many drawn from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which was finalised back in 1991.

Other recommendations towards reconciliation include protection of sacred sites, genuine truth-telling about ongoing settler colonialism and its effects on First Nations peoples and significant action on homelessness and the housing crisis.

The rally will begin at 12:30 in Forrest Place, followed by a march and yarning session. 

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