Hundreds of people “occupied” Brisbane’s City Hall in protest at the threatened closure of remote Indigenous communities in Western Australia.
The sit-in, which ended peacefully on Saturday evening after protesters chanted slogans and sported banners in the hall for more than two hours, followed nationwide protests on Friday.
Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy spokesman Paul Spearim said Indigenous communities were concerned the plight faced by those in WA was a harbinger of what could take hold in the fellow mining state of Queensland.
“We thought the best thing we could do was to make a statement. And our statement was to occupy the chambers there for as long as we could,” he said.
A police spokeswoman told Guardian Australia there were no injuries or arrests and protesters eventually left City Hall after negotiations with police.
Spearim said the rally in King George Square, which was part of a national network of protests but delayed a day because of a major rainstorm, drew 3,000 to 4,000 people.
Police estimated 300 to 400 joined a subsequent march through city streets and down the Queen Street Mall before entering City Hall. The police spokeswoman said the sit-in ended after a final group of about 25 protesters asked to speak to the Queensland governor but then left without incident.
Spearim said the event was “very peaceful”. “We were negotiating all the way through with the police themselves to ensure that it was peaceful and they understood it was a peaceful sit-in, that there was going to be no damage to King George Square or even to the chambers themselves,” he said.
“We wanted to make a point to the state and federal government in Queensland that what affects Western Australia, their Indigenous communities, once they do that there, they’re going to come to Queensland, they’re going to close down communities like Cherbourg, Yarrabah, and all these other Indigenous communities.
“It’s all about mining and how much you can take out of the land and that’s the only reason that they are moving these communities away.”
Spearim said there was concern that an idea that took hold in WA may spread to Queensland.
“Tony Abbott’s comment, it’s a lifestyle choice – it’s not a lifestyle choice,” he said. “We live on these communities because it’s a part of us being who we are because of Indigenous people. It’s our song, it’s our dance, it’s our stories. Tony Abbott and Barnett don’t understand that concept about belonging to something that is older than time.”
