Wednesday, 5 February 2025

 Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (09:55): On 26 January 2025 I joined thousands of Victorians from all walks of life on the front steps of Parliament to stand alongside our First Nations people on a day of mourning, invasion and remembrance of their survival through genocide. My family and I listened with an open heart to the lived experiences of our Indigenous peoples – elders, young people, people in our community who are from the oldest living culture on earth. Despite the denial and resistance to changing the date of 26 January, it is difficult to embrace unity because true unity involves truth-telling. This involves acknowledging the pain of history and how our colonial legacy and racist systems continue to pervade and disproportionately impact the lives of our Indigenous communities from one generation to the next. Indigenous people in this country are imprisoned at a higher rate than in any other country, constantly wearing the cultural load and holding space for ignorant parts of our community that would rather hold tightly to the status quo than make space. 26 January was a day of listening, walking together and resistance. I heed the calls and voices of our Indigenous communities that 26 January is not the day to celebrate.