Published 26 January 202217 March 2022 · Aboriginal Australia / Invasion Day We’re not publishing today Evelyn Araluen Dear Overland family, I write in honour and respect for the 700+ First Nations language groups of so-called-Australia, for the ancestors who have cared for this land since time immemorial, and for the custodians who continue to protect the sovereignty of their lands and waters. I write in honour and respect for my ancestors, family and countrypeople. Invasion Day is not a day to celebrate. It is not a day to profit from dispossession and genocide. It is not a day to debate the humanity of vulnerable and marginalised people. It is also not a day to make demands on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to endlessly repeat arguments for our own humanity. As a publisher I am acutely aware of the cost of this intellectual and political labour on Blak people. It is draining to walk in the shadow of a violent history in which every right wrestled back from the colony has been paid for a hundred times over with our blood. What has historically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people been a day of protest, mourning and reverence for our own survival is being coopted by popular discourse and performative activism. Settler allies can buy overpriced tee shirts our people can’t afford, make social media posts to impress their mates, and replace the beachside BBQ with rallies crowding our people to the back of the march at no real material cost to themselves. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are endlessly called upon to rearticulate our suffering and need for community-specific resources to close ever-widening gaps, and in return we are told to be grateful for symbolic campaigns to incrementally rearrange the oppressions of the colony. So today we’re not making those demands on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contributors to repeat and repeat and repeat their resistance. Today we’re providing information on First Nations led campaigns, donation drives and educational resources on the true history of Blak struggle and survivial. In solidarity and power. Bugalwan to Blakfullas only today. Pay The Rent Path to Equality: extensive links to donation drives, petitions, organisations, artists and education resources Dhadjowa Foundation: Stop Black Deaths in Custody Fundraiser to restore footage from NINGLA-ANA Hungry For Our Land film Survival Guide: a podcast series centring Indigenous voices amongst multicultural Waterloo residents to critique colonisation and gentrification, by Lorna Munro and Joel Sherwood Spring. Frontier War Stories: a podcast dedicated to truth-telling about a side of Australian that has been left out of the history books. Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Invasion Day Webinar BlackWords: archive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writing and storytelling IndigenousX: a 100% Indigenous owned and operated media, consultancy, and training organisation Barry Corr on Invasion Day Lorna Munro on healing and resistence Dakota Feirer on healing country Evelyn Araluen Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, researcher and co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Her Stella-prize winning poetry collection DROPBEAR was published by UQP in 2021. More by Evelyn Araluen › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 17 March 202617 March 2026 · ecology Carrying country – the unseen emotional labour of environmental defence Jens Kirsch Daniel Garlett is a Noongar cultural educator and community advocate who has spent decades opposing logging, mining, and large-scale land clearing in Western Australia’s forests and catchments. He lives here because he says he cannot live anywhere else. The quiet, the canopy, and the smell of damp earth after rain are not amenities. They are conditions of life. 12 March 202612 March 2026 · Invasion Day From invasion to terror: white supremacy and the “Australian” state Roxy Moore Within minutes, Uncle Herbert Bropho got on the microphone and calmly asked everyone to clear the area, and told the audience the police said there was a bomb. We moved to the back of Forrest Chase, where we regrouped briefly and then began to march.
