First Nations Leaders Respond After Anzac Day Services Disrupted By Booing

Anzac Day dawn services were disrupted as Indigenous elders delivering Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies were met with jeering in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

On Saturday, at Sydney’s Martin Place service, Uncle Ray Minniecon was delivering an Acknowledgement of Country when booing broke out and carried on for more than a minute.

“Part of your military training is just to go through any kind of conflict, or any kind of tension that’s there, and just do what you need to do,” he later told the ABC.

Once the taunting was contained, the crowd responded with applause and cheers after he completed the address.

Sydney police arrested a 24-year-old man over alleged disruptive behaviour at the service.

Meanwhile, in Perth, officers issued 10 move-on notices at Kings Park to people attempting to interfere in proceedings, with similar scenes in Melbourne.

The disruptions followed nationalist group Fight For Australia circulating footage of a Welcome to Country being booed at last year’s Melbourne Anzac Day dawn services alongside the message: “How loud will you be this year?”

Uncle Ray said the hostility was painful but not unexpected, saying attitudes toward First Nations people had hardened since the 2023 Voice to Parliament referendum.

“[It] seems like there’s some more of a legitimacy to attack us Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people more, which is sad,” he said. “It does ask that deeper question, you know, ‘Why do they hate us? What’s the reason?’”

RSL Australia president Peter Tinley said organisers were aware of the post but had limited ability to prevent disruption in open public spaces.

“If it gets any worse, potentially [hecklers] may have to be removed and we will stop ceremonies if we have to,” he said. “And that will be a sad day.”

He said the organisation was also investigating reports that veterans may have been among those involved.

Yimithirr man and Australian Army captain Uncle Jack Pearson said racism undermined the meaning of the day and broader national unity.

“Racism in any shape or form is a cancer to any society,” he said.

He noted nearly 1,000 First Nations Australians served in the First World War, with Indigenous service continuing through every major conflict since the Boer War.

Former AFL inclusion executive Tanya Hosch said managing disturbances in open public settings requires coordination and significant resources.

“The failure of the referendum definitely sent some messages to people… that I think have created an environment where people feel a greater degree of freedom to voice their views around racist ideology,” she said.

“I think the challenge for all of us is to demonstrate consistently that this is not a shared view.”

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said officers responded quickly in Sydney but stressed responsibility extended beyond policing.

“We all have a responsibility to call out this disrespect when we see it,” she said.

Uncle Ray said the booing at Sydney’s Anzac Day services was “water off a duck’s back.”

“What we’ve been doing and will continue to do, based on our ancestors, is just to stand strong, stand tall, know who we are, where we come from, and that this is Aboriginal land,” he said. “That kind of truth will never be destroyed.”