Indigenous Community Voices Concerns Over Response to Invasion Day Bombing Attempt
Members of Perth's Indigenous community who witnessed the alleged attempted terror attack during the Invasion Day rally have expressed to a federal inquiry that they felt dismissed and ignored by authorities in the aftermath.
Western Australia police officially classified the incident as a terror attack nine days after a homemade bomb, containing ball bearings, screws, and other projectiles, was thrown into a crowd of approximately 2,000 people at Forrest Place on 26 January. Liam Alexander Hall, a Perth man, has been charged with terrorism offences and remains in custody.
During a hearing in Perth on Monday, Curtin University academic Renae Isaacs‑Guthridge recounted witnessing the device land near her after it was thrown into the crowd.
“I shouldn’t be sitting here and talking to you today. I and my girls, and mum and my sister, we should be dead because it landed right in front of us,”
Isaacs-Guthridge, who identifies as Noongar‑Yamatji, stated that many community members felt ignored and dismissed in the days and weeks following the attack, which left the community deeply shaken and traumatised.
“I believe because we were an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crowd, there is an underlying hate against us, and so we’re not taken as seriously,”
She contrasted the response to this attack with that of the Bondi massacre a month earlier, where 15 people died and 40 were injured, noting a lack of comparable urgency and understanding.
“There needs to be consistency – no matter what happens in any situation where there’s a terrorist attack or there’s harm. And to me, that consistency was not applied,”
Isaacs-Guthridge also criticised the absence of condemnation from politicians and non-Indigenous leaders.
“Silence. Nothing … There was obviously a distinct pattern of people who said absolutely nothing.”
Organisers Warned Police of Threats Before Rally
Fabian Yarran, the organiser of the Invasion Day rally, informed the inquiry that they had received warnings that far-right individuals might target the event.
“We had a tipoff from community members that the Nazi party was going to come and hurt us on that day,”
Yarran stated that they communicated this unspecified threat to police and several state MPs but that police did not meet with organisers prior to the event.
The rally site was evacuated after a woman in the crowd picked up the device, which was allegedly thrown from a balcony, and handed it to a police officer. Yarran described the police communication as inadequate.
“The police didn’t tell us about the actual bomb. They didn’t communicate, it was very frightening, very terrifying,”
“[It was] especially disappointing that they didn’t come out and say that it was just a terrorist attack straight away.”
Former Indigenous Minister Highlights Impact of Referendum Defeat
Ken Wyatt, former Indigenous affairs minister, also gave evidence, linking the 2023 defeat of the referendum on a constitutional voice to parliament to a normalization of racism and online hate. He noted that his own party campaigned against the referendum.
“It opened the doors to the trolls and the racists to legitimise their comments, both on social media and certainly in some of the behaviours and actions that they’re doing,”
Wyatt added that some councils have ceased performing Welcome to Country ceremonies or flying Aboriginal flags.
As a Yamatji man and the first Indigenous person elected to a lower house federal seat, Wyatt expressed hope that the inquiry would lead to actionable recommendations and adequate funding.
“I suspect at the royal commission into antisemitism that there will be money allocated,”
“What I’d like to see, if that occurs, is for the Indigenous parallel to be equally funded and supported, so it is rolled out across the nation.”
