Thesis abstract:

«p»This thesis examines the spatial and urbanistic implications of First Nations protest in Sydney. The history of the First Nations justice movement in Australia has been punctuated by a series of landmark protest actions. Beginning in 1938 with the Day of Mourning led by the Aborigines Progressive Association, many of the most important actions have been counter-observances of national celebrations such as Australia Day. Designed to draw attention in the early years to mistreatment of First Nations people, the movement and its protests gradually evolved to the point where it attempted to contest established historical narratives and reframe the process of British settlement as an invasion. While historians have carefully tracked the changes in political meaning of protest actions, there has been meagre scholarly attention to their spatial and urbanistic dimensions. «/p» «p»The analysis of several protests in Sydney since 1938 identified three key spatial characteristics of First Nations justice protests, using evidence drawn from predominantly First Nations archives and interviews with political actors. First, the protest organisers explicitly sought to address and reframe the meaning of colonial monuments by denaturalising their ideological function. Second, they have gradually acquired their own set of spatial and architectural references points alluding to the history of First Nations protest and marking sites of First Nations safety in the city. And third, they depended on a set of backstage spaces for organising and assembling. The paper argues that despite being the most architecturally non-descript spaces, typically mostly invisible and on the margins of the city, these places of assembly and organising are safe harbours for participants that were absolutely essential to the success of the protest’s actions. «/p» «p»The analysis of these spatial characteristics of First Nations protests revealed that a more nuanced understanding of the urban landscape can be achieved if the experiences of Indigenous political actors are meaningfully included in urban discourse. This counter-reading of the city during some of the most politically polarising moments of the last 80 years has potential to unlock a greater understanding of how collective protest experiences have helped shape and manipulate the colonial city, and subsequently produced meaning in urban space for Indigenous communities. «/p»