Speech on racism in Australia hailed as ‘Martin Luther King moment’

Mr Canning said January 26 was also a day in which Indigenous Australians celebrated their warrior ancestors.

With breathtaking clarity and passion, Stan Grant spoke personally of his experience of being an indigenous man in Australia and the jaw-dropping facts of the Stan Grant’s family’s past, the hell they have endured, and the deliberate and systemic government effort, a “war of extermination”, on the Indigenous people of Australia.

The speech has been hailed as a Martin Luther King moment by many commentators.

Declaring the Australian dream as “rooted in racism”, Grant said the legacy of Australia’s dark past continues today, citing the lower life expectancy and higher rates of incarceration still experienced by indigenous Australians.

“The Australian dream, we are better than this”, he said, later on continuing, “Of course racism is killing the Australian dream”.

“But my people die young in this country – we die 10 years younger than average Australians – and we are far from free”.

“We heard a howl of humiliation that echoes across two centuries of dispossession, injustice, suffering and survival”.

Australia needs to “look around and see what it’s created” if it wants to close the gap with indigenous Australia, says Stan Grant.

Every time an Aboriginal personal was drawn into the light they were “mugged by the darkness of this country’s history”.

Invasion Day rallies have been held across the nation to remember the First Fleet landing in Australia and the ensuing killings of Indigenous people.

Grant admitted that he has done well, but not because of the Australian dream, but in spite of it. His father, who toiled in the mills because he was denied an education, lost three fingers just to feed his children.

If the white blood in me was here tonight, my grandmother, she would tell you of how she was turned away from a hospital giving birth to her first child because she was giving birth to the child of a black person.

Grant urged Australians to acknowledge Australia’s dark past and be “better” than racism.

Stan Grant was answering to the positive of “Racism is Destroying the Australian Dream”.

“The grassroots Aboriginal community says “no” to the recognition campaign that’s been pushed onto us”, organiser Meriki Onus told AAP.

Chanting “always was, always will be Aboriginal land”, protesters marched from The Block in Redfern, where speeches and dances were performed, to the centre of the city on Tuesday morning.