Stop All Black Deaths in Custody: Vigil for George Floyd

Overview

UPDATE: June 6, 2020 — On Saturday, ten minutes before the Stop All Black Deaths in Custody rally was scheduled to start, the NSW Court of Appeal overturned the Supreme Court's decision to prohibit the rally. The protest is now an authorised public assembly and will go ahead at 3pm.

UPDATE: June 5, 2020 — On Friday, the NSW Police won a Supreme Court bid to prohibit tomorrow's Stop All Black Deaths in Custody rally. Justice Desmond Fagan said that the rally was "a very undesirable idea", according to the ABC, and "the exercise of the fundamental right of assembly … is not taken away by the current public health order, it is deferred." Organisers of the event have said the protest will still go ahead.

This Saturday, June 6, rallies will be held across Australia in protest of Black and Indigenous deaths at the hands of police, both locally and in the US. Held in solidarity with the protests currently happening in the States — in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis — and in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the Sydney rally is also a call to action on the systemic mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by police.

Since 1991's royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, another 432 Indigenous Australians have died in custody, including Dunghutti man David Dungay Jr, who's 2015 death draws many parallels to that of Floyd.

Organised by the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Anticolonial Asian Alliance and USYD Autonomous Collective Against Racism, the Sydney protest is called Stop All Black Deaths in Custody: Vigil for George Floyd. It'll be held from 3–5pm, starting at Sydney Town Hall, and will also be live-streamed on Facebook and Zoom for those who can't attend (with links set to be posted on the event post on the day).

While NSW's COVID-19 cases are declining, we're still in the midst of a pandemic and rally attendees are encouraged to practise social distancing measures, with the organisers suggesting everyone wears a mask, stands 1.5-metres apart and does not attend if they are feeling unwell. If you have even mild symptoms, it's strongly encouraged you go and get tested.

If you can't attend, but would still like to do your part, you can donate to an Indigenous Australian charity or organisation — including to the family of Dungay Jr, who are currently raising money to cover legal costs — and educate yourself on Australia's Indigenous history. To help start with the latter, here are 13 films by Indigenous Australian filmmakers you can stream.