The Day Of Mourning Persuasive Speech

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On the 26th of January, White-Australian’s all around Australia celebrated the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet to Port Jackson. To many, it was seen as a day to commemorate the growth and progress of Australia, but to the Indigenous community this day symbolised the ‘frightful conditions’ (Jack Patten, 1938) that the they were forced into and was referred to as ‘The Day of Mourning’. Three Indigenous men saw this day as an opportunity to raise awareness for the mistreatment and discrimination shown towards their people. William Cooper, William Ferguson and Jack Patten revealed a petition seeking equal citizen rights for the Indigenous people. The protest commenced with a march at Sydney’s Town Hall and involved not only …show more content…

The meeting was intended for all Aboriginal people and around 1000 people attended deeming it one of the first mass civil rights gatherings. During the meeting, Jack Patten and William Ferguson distributed pamphlets called ‘Aborigines Claim Citizenship Rights’ included a statement saying; “You are the New Australians, but we are the Old Australians. We have in our arteries the blood of the Original Australians, who have lived in this land for many thousands of years. You came here only recently, and you took our land away from us by force. You have almost exterminated our people, but there are enough of us remaining to expose the humbug of your claim, as white Australians, to be a civilised, regressive, kindly and humane nation” which showed the Aborigines perspective on their living conditions and constant discrimination by the White Settlers. The methods used in the Day of Mourning protest were somewhat effective as it attracted interest throughout Australia causing support for the protest to rise. The protest was a major step towards redressing the treatment of the Indigenous