Black Lives Matter (BLM) - Black Lives Matter is a phrase, and notably a hashtag, used to highlight racism, discrimination and inequality experienced by black people.

After the 200m final The Black Power salute was given by Tommie Smith, USA (center) and John Carlos, USA. Peter Norman, Australia (left) wears an Olympic Project for Human Rights OPHR badge in solidarity with them.

Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate (The Conversation, 11 June 2020)

Prime Minister Scott Morrison asserted in a radio interview that “there was no slavery in Australia”.
This is a common misunderstanding which often obscures our nation’s history of exploitation of First Nations people and Pacific Islanders.

Australia’s hidden history of slavery: the government divides to conquer (The Conversation, 31 October, 1971)

My grandfather was Moses Topay Enares. He was only 12 years old when he was coerced onto a ship, put in the hold and fed stodge, a flour-like substance, until he arrived in Queensland.

Perth's Black Lives Matter rally draws thousands to Langley Park despite opposition from WA Premier (ABC 13 June 2020)

• The turnout was below the 15,000 people initially forecast to attend the rally
• Masks and hand sanitiser stations were provided at the rally
• Premier Mark McGowan urged people not to attend due to coronavirus fears

Black Lives Matter rallies held across Australia to protest against mistreatment and deaths of Indigenous people (ABC News, 7 June 2020)

• Thousands of people turned out at rallies across Australia
• Protesters were supporting Indigenous people and the Black Lives Matter movement, which began after police killings in the US
• The protests in capital cities and regional centres were largely peaceful

Black Lives Matter protesters have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak of police brutality in US history (ABC, 7 June 2020)

A stand-out feature of the protests in the United States has been the amount of police brutality caught on film.
In this era of social media, Americans have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak (and archive) of police brutality in US history.

Aggressive police upending Aboriginal lives (SBS, 20 February 2019)

Raw videos captured by smartphones and spread on social media are shining a light on disturbing confrontations with law enforcement.

WA police officer repeatedly punched Aboriginal man during arrest (WA Today, 8 May, 2023)

Western Australia’s Corruption and Crime Commission has detailed the “serious misconduct” of a senior police officer who repeatedly punched and verbally abused an Indigenous man during an arrest.

Indigenous Deaths in Custody: Chapter 6 Police Practices (Australian Human Rights Commission)

A look into Australia's own civil rights movement (TRTWorld, 2018)

Gary Foley, one of the main leaders of the Black Power Movement in Australia says the literature of Malcolm X and other writers of the US civil rights era influenced Australia's Indigenous thought and action against white supremacy.

What was Australia's Freedom Ride?

A group of students from the University of Sydney, inspired by the United States 1961 Freedom Rides, got on a bus on 12 February, 1965 and toured through regional towns such as Walgett, Gulargambone, Kempsey, Bowraville and Moree to show wider Australia the experience of Aboriginal Australians.

These students - who were known as the Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA) and led by Arrernte man Charles Perkins from Alice Springs - recorded acts of racism against Aboriginal people and broadcast them to media around the country.

(Rolling Stone, 16 December 2020)

Despite 432 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991, no one has ever been convicted. Racist silence and complicity are to blame. (The Conversation, 3 June 2020)

Do you know about David Dungay Jr? He was a Dunghutti man, an uncle. He had a talent for poetry that made his family endlessly proud. He was held down by six corrections officers in a prone position until he died and twice injected with sedatives because he ate rice crackers in his cell.
Dungay’s last words were also “I can’t breathe”.
An officer replied “If you can talk, you can breathe”.

Three in four people have an implicit negative bias against Indigenous Australians, study finds (ABC, 9 June 2020)

Studying data collected over 10 years from over 11,000 people, academics at the Australian National University (ANU) found there was a "negative implicit or unconscious bias against Indigenous Australians across the board … which is likely the cause of the racism that many First Australians experience".

'Essentially a cover-up': why it's so hard to measure the over-policing of Indigenous Australians (The Guardian, 13 June 2020)

Over-policing traps Aboriginal Australians in the criminal justice system, but it’s hard to get a handle on the problem.

PODCAST - Pat Dodson on Indigenous deaths in custody – Australian politics live (The Guardian, 20 June 2020)

Katharine Murphy speaks with Labor senator Pat Dodson about Indigenous deaths in custody and the Black Lives Matter protests being held across Australia. They discuss the underlying causes that give rise to First Nations people dying in custody, Dodson’s work on the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody 30 years ago, and the current movement for change.