Last weekend’s marches against racism and the deaths in custody of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders saw tens of thousands gathering in Australia's major cities, defying COVID-19 risks, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States, following the death of African-American George Floyd earlier this month while being arrested by police.
Australian authorities are now strongly urging the public to not attend further mass public protests citing public health risks, but organisers are promising to hold more rallies, insisting on the fact that Black Lives Matter.
Faced with a new call for protests in Sydney on Friday night, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has strongly called on people to abstain from participating in the protests to avoid a blow to the country's progress in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
While it is still too early to determine if any spread of the disease occurred as a result of the protests last week, one person who participated in the Melbourne march tested positive to coronavirus. He was asymptomatic but is suspected of having been infectious at the time.
Despite the health risks, many Indigenous Australians insist on protesting to defend their family, their values, and their nations.
Leonel Chévez, a Brisbane-based Indigenous Lenka leader and expert in health, security and terrorism, considers this sentiment can be equated to the motivation that drove ANZAC soldiers to war.
"These people who go to the marches have the same cause: their families are being killed by a system that is unlikely to stop [unless intervened]," he explains.
Chévez, originally for El Salvador, came to Australia as a refugee, as members of his community have historically been killed and persecuted by the State in their homelands. He has worked internationally in discussion groups and negotiations led by the United Nations on Indigenous rights.
"[Indigenous peoples] endure an agonising process. We are trying to find the solutions to things that have not yet been resolved (since colonisation)”. 
"Aboriginal people are part of the minority groups that directly suffer the impact of the systems [imposed by colonisation] that still have remnants of force and brutality against groups that have been victimised,” Chévez says.
Protesters participate in a Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney Source: AAP Image/Dean Lewins
“I think this is a moral stain in a democracy like Australia’s”.
While urging Australians to refrain from attending the rallies, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has accused the protesters of holding “a double standard” by participating in protests that have offended other fellow Australians.
Talking to 3AW, the prime minister said the protests put “others’ lives and livelihoods at risk”.
“I saw some people say when they attended this rally, ‘oh, I knew the risk I was taking by attending.’ They were talking about themselves. They weren't talking about the Australians who weren't there. You know, millions of quiet Australians who have done the right thing. And they didn't seem to be that concerned about their health or their businesses or their jobs.”
Morrison, whose utmost priority is to resume economic activity in July to mitigate the effect of the economic recession forecast in Australia, also suggested the rallies went against their very cause.
"The way it has been done and the suggestion that they will do it again put public support at risk for even the issue they raise," he stressed.
The protests occur at a delicate moment in Australia, a country that, with moderate measures of confinement and social restriction, has successfully controlled the COVID-19 pandemic, registering about 7,300 confirmed cases and just over 100 deaths. At the time of publication, the country sees less than ten new cases of the disease per day.
NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Willing on Thursday said, “police have not received notice of the protest” so it’s therefore deemed “unauthorised”. There have also been calls for NSW Police to issue fines to those who attend and a Refugee rally planned for Sydney on Saturday has also been prohibited.
Chévez explains this type of “anti-march rhetoric” is frequently used by the systems of power to defend itself when challenged and questioned.
The health and security expert believes human beings are wired to choose the ultimate sacrifice when they find themselves in a defenceless position of not being able to “correct a system” of oppression, after a long time or several generations.
He cites the Arab Spring as an example of this, as the wider regional movement against autocratic regimes in 2011 started after repeated police abuse towards poor merchants and street vendors in Tunisia. Constant ill-treatment triggered Tunisian man Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi to set himself on fire, which then sparked the Tunisian uprising that then catapulted to broader unrest.
"What we are being told is that we have no other option but to give our lives to change the world."
Chévez explains that if he takes his “Indigenous cap off”, he would label the protests as “highly risky”, as it’s too early to determine if they resulted in contagion. However, he would stop short from using the term “irresponsible”.
He also stresses that there is a risk to authorities if no outbreaks occur as a result of the rallies.
“If infections do not occur, people could think that this rhetoric was used as an instrument of control.”
Chévez believes that only legitimate response to the issues can stop the protests.
“Inclusive dialogue with protest organizers on how to coexist [is paramount]. Indigenous people need to see that their representatives have status and are respected by authorities" so that the accumulated anger and frustration can subside.
First Nations peoples are approximately 28 percent of the Australian prison population, despite being only three percent of the overall Australian population.
The Guardian’s project revealed that at least 437 Indigenous Australians have died in police custody since the 1991 Royal Commission set up to investigate this matter.
Chévez explains that some of the mistreatment comes from the fact that positions of authority within the security and policing industries tend to attract a small number of people who use these structures to perpetrate abuse, staining the otherwise commendable work and high ethical standards pursued by these institutions.
"They use [positions of authority] as shells. They take advantage of these to advance their racist, classist, and [white] superiority ideology. They use the instruments of these institutions to release cruelty, and believe that they can do it without accountability."
The Indigenous chief, whose family survived execution in the 1930s in El Salvador, after their land was taken from them, emphasizes that most Australians “live in a hypnotic bubble” oblivious to the ongoing suffering of Indigenous peoples and other minorities at home and around the world.
For Chévez, advocating for the vindication of Indigenous peoples are our best bet to ensure we continue living in a country that is not racist, and that works together for a bright future, in both good times and bad.
