I was in Perth last week because my mother had died and Sunday was a day when I finally had something to do for myself. I’ve been a photojournalist for a few years and I went to the March for Australia rally because I wanted to see what would happen, and because I like to document these sort of things. I also needed a distraction.
As the protesters walked past, some individuals were openly yelling out “fuck off you, black cunts” to counter-protesters. But a lot of the counter-protesters weren’t Indigenous or people of colour or black; they were mostly white-presenting. But it seemed very specific to yell out those words: “Fuck off, you black cunts.”
In Perth there were two separate marches. One group set off on their march early, and then there was a second group.
Some people in that second group were yelling out things such as “Australia for the white man!”, which I found very confronting. I was the only person of colour that was walking with them. I was taking photos as we walked.
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My dad’s a Māori and my mum’s a Yamatji woman from Western Australia. Hearing people yelling about immigrants, I thought it was hilarious; the funniest thing ever. They were denying their own history here, but you can understand that it comes from what they feel is a position of supremacy and they want ownership over this land that they claim to be theirs.
I’m the son of an immigrant. My partner is an immigrant and my mother is Indigenous. I would have loved anyone to try and say anything to me.
There’s two things about me: I’m Indigenous, and I also served this country in the Royal Australian Navy. So if anyone tried to say anything to me, I’d just say: “Well, mate …”
I didn’t get any comments. I only got people staring at me, but it was mostly because they could see my camera.
I did feel at risk because as I was walking along the main road in Perth. I was standing in front of them with my back to the marchers. I thought maybe someone’s going to come punch me in the back of the head. Maybe someone’s going to lob something over the top of the crowd and hit me in the back of the head. But I don’t think this crowd had it in them to be as violent as they were in Melbourne. It was really crazy over there.
At one point, there was one man walking beside them on the left side of the path. He was yelling at them, that they were not welcome in Perth. And they were calling out to him: “You’re a traitor to your people!”
I could have joined in. I could have helped that man out. I could have backed him up and confronted them as well. I’m just one man.
I think the anti-immigration marches over the weekend were a wake-up call. A lot of people I had spoken to were upset that there weren’t enough people at the counter-protests – but they should have been there themselves. There’s no point being upset if you didn’t go.
It seemed like on that day the protesters weren’t targeting the government. They did seem to have an issue with the government’s immigration policy but it didn’t seem as if they were fighting the government. They were attacking any person who didn’t look like them or fit their ideology.
