Aboriginal activist Wayne Wharton and WAR protesters burn an Australian flag in Brisbane. Source: AAP / Russell Freeman

Thousands of protesters have marched the streets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Canberra in opposition to the National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth and "racist colonial imperialism."

The Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance (WAR) organized a National Day of Protest in response to the government's swift action to declare the one-off public holiday.

While at Canberra's Parliament House, the likes of politicians and ambassadors gathered to commemorate Queen Elizabeth, others were hitting the pavement to stand against the day.

Brisbane's organized rally began at 11:00 am, the same time which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese encouraged Australians to take part in a minute's silence for Queen Elizabeth.

Protest organizer and Gomeroi/Kooma woman Ruby Wharton said the lead-up to the public holiday felt similar to Invasion Day, on January 26.

“We've been yelling for a day of mourning and demanding one for the last 200 years.”

"[Australians] need to ask themselves why our Head of State doesn't even come from this country. And how the head of state got to this country, that's through murder, through pillaging, through [the] dispossession of lands and First Nations people and that's a continuing, ongoing project," she told NITV News.

Published 22 September 2022 at 3:27 pm, updated 22 September 2022 at 5:01 pm. By Tanisha Stanton, Alexis Moran, Cameron Gooley, Ricky Kirby. Source: NITV

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