Speakers from the Roma Street Forum and Candlelight Ceremony

Jade Johnson
young Aboriginal dancer
"For me, as a young Murri, today is a day I acknowledge as Invasion Day - the day our country was invaded. I also celebrate it as Survival Day because I look around and I see the survival of my people and culture."

Uncle Paddy Jerome
"We are spiritually one with everything we survey within this land and no one can take that away from us. And I am glad to see the strength and the spirit we maintain in surviving and growing with the past. And being strongly and more strongly Murri in our sense of values and our ethics. This spirit is with us and it is one with Australia."

Lionel Fogarty
"Today is a horrible day for me as well as a lot of Aboriginal people. This day is not to be celebrated. What I'd like to say is that the white man and the white woman in this country have been alienating our people for 210 years, in terms of understanding which direction we can take by procrastinating and by stereotyping our people into believing in the system. I think there should be more people here today in support of our people and that if we all walk together we will understand the one beat of the land."

Steve Mam
"We've got to talk about a glad tomorrow for our children. And I speak regardless of race or creed. It is time to really place the proper reconciliation on the table and work together as Australians. That's the road we want to go, the road to justice. Let's pray, let's walk together, build this country with the blessing of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters on the proper road to reconciliation."

Tammy Williams
"Today means a lot of different things to different people. It can mean Australia Day to some people and of course it is Invasion Day. But I like to look at it as a positive day. I'd like to acknowledge and respect all those people who have died, been murdered, killed, raped, who's children were stolen from them. But also I'd like to acknowledge that this is the day we survived. It's amazing I look out and think for 360 000 people - that's less than 2 per cent of our population - we have produced some of the best people in the world. So when we walk may we realise that we have 40 000 years of spirit running through our veins. We all are living testimony of being survivors."

Cheryl Buchanan
"Anytime we can get together and anytime I can see that black, red and yellow I feel really really good. But I tell you what, all those people out there are going to really have to get in and fight this year. There is not one government that any of us can trust, that's either state or federal, they've all had an opportunity to give us our proper rights in this country, they have all had an opportunity to give us compensation. Have any of them done it? Of course not. Why? Because at the end of the day they don't want to recognise the most beautiful, proud, dignified race that they've tried to destroy, that is the Aboriginal people of this country. As a sovereign people we have to show this nation that this nation is ours and they are not going to take it away without a very very big fight."

Les Malezer
"Australia, it's time. It's time for justice. The 26th of January is not a time for anyone to celebrate in this country. Time is running out. We cannot afford to go into the next millennium still talking about justice for Aboriginal people. Still talking about justice and not accepting the truth that the 26th of January is not the day for Australia to celebrate. It is a day for Australia to mourn. It is a day for Australia to reflect. But the Australia Day Council has to realise that as long as it's the 26th of January that's Australia Day, then we will never be able to celebrate, we will never be able to walk together. Let's find a day when all Australians can walk together, when all Australians can celebrate together. And that day will be the day when a treaty is concluded between the Aboriginal people, the Torres Strait Islander people and the Australian nation. When that treaty is concluded, then we will celebrate."

Jackie Huggins
"People say that 'we don't like politics' well, I'm sorry, but this is what this world is made up of. It's made of political people, aspirations and it's a mainstream thing that we all must become involved in. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people of this country still have a great spirit that will never ever die, will never ever go away and we saw that here today, in other parts of the country as well. And certainly it's something we wish all people would join in together with us. People might say they don't know what reconciliation is. Reconciliation is this. It's a coming together of everybody to respect everybody's own interpretation of themselves. But particularly for Aboriginal people it's an acknowledgement of our very rightful identity in knowing that we were and are the first Australians to ever have walked this country. I wish you all the very best and to, in whatever way you can, motivate and drive other people to seeing that these injustices will never ever be tolerated again in our life time."

Sam Watson
"At some point in the history of the race there will come a moment when those people need to fear for their very survival. And unfortunately because the agenda is set by narrow minded, greedy, racist, fascist politicians like Borbidge and Howard, Aboriginal and Islander people really do feel that this year is the year we're going to be placed on the edge - where we're going to have to fight back in order to secure not only our own survival but the survival of children, born, unborn and future generations."