This archive report was first published on 13 June 2020.
On June 13, 2020, thousands of people gathered in cities across Australia to demand racial equality, despite official warnings that the demonstrations could undermine the country's success in suppressing the coronavirus.
The largest protest took place in Perth, the Western Australian capital, where several thousand people gathered in a park waving 'Black Lives Matter' signs and Aboriginal flags.
Smaller protests for Aboriginal rights were held in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, and towns in neighboring Queensland, both regions with numerous indigenous communities.
Protesters carried signs reflecting the Aboriginal experience, including 'Stop deaths in custody' and 'White Australia stop lying to yourselves.'
Organisers made efforts to keep the protesters spread out and mostly wearing face masks, and police did not intervene.
It was the second straight weekend of large protests in Australia, initially organised in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States following the killing by a white policeman of African-American George Floyd.
Aboriginal Australians are vastly over-represented in the prison population, and there have been more than 400 indigenous deaths in custody in the last three decades.
No prosecutions have been brought over the deaths, despite dozens of investigations, inquests and in some cases video evidence of abuse.
