How Young Aboriginal Activists Organised a Black Lives Matter Rally Over Zoom

When 19-year-old Tanesha Bennell and 22-year-old Stephanie McGuire, both Noongar women, met over Zoom last week to plan a Black Lives Matter rally in the Perth CBD, they hoped, best case scenario, that about 300 people would show up.

Instead, as demonstrations flared throughout the United States in response to police brutality and racial injustice, more than 2,000 WA citizens turned up on Monday night to protest the treatment of Indigenous people in Australia and Aboriginal deaths in custody.

"We obviously smashed it out the park," Tanesha laughs over the phone to Student Edge.

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Tanesha was inspired to set up the event on Facebook after witnessing the movement in America, sparked by the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

"I wanted to stand in solidarity and show that Australia supports them, and the cause, but also to acknowledge that this isn’t just happening in America, it’s a prevalent issue over here."

"It infuriates me when I hear Australians saying, 'At least we’re not as bad as America', or, 'At least it’s only an issue in America', because it’s a massive issue in Australia and it’s so important that we do speak up," Stephanie adds.

Stephanie introduced herself to Tanesha just last week while looking for a way to participate in a collective action here at home, having seen the rising response in the United States.

"I’ve been attending protests for a while and this is an issue I’m extremely passionate about, but I guess I didn’t have the courage to put myself out there and post the event the way Tanesha did," she tells us.

"So when I saw that someone was doing it, I was like, 'You’re a legend, I’d love to help out and contribute however I can.'"

"I was excited to see another young Noongar girl wanting to join forces with me," Tanesha laughs.

"We met on the night. We’ve been Zooming the last few days a lot. We went up to each other and gave each other a big hug, and got to work."

Photo Credit: #MilesTweediePhotography

Stephanie connected Tanesha with elders—who were "so ready and so keen" to lend their wisdom—and they both credit "a lot of people behind the scenes" with helping them put the event together. However, they ultimately chalk up the success of the night to the communal spirit.

"I think the reason it was so powerful was because it was different communities coming together," Stephanie says.

"A lot of the African Australian community came and joined because it was a topic that was close to home for them, and they wanted to join forces.

"That’s probably one of the most diverse protests I’ve ever been to. The majority of the people in the audience, from what I could see, were of colour."

"I didn’t think it was seen as big an issue as it's now become apparent in Perth," Tanesha adds.

"From my experience living in Perth, I haven’t had a lot of support when talking about this kind of stuff, and I have copped a little bit of backlash from some of my inner circles, in terms of my friends and some of the people I went to school with, which has been disappointing. But on the other side of things, I’ve never felt so supported by my Noongar community, and my elders, and people who are older than me, people who are sharing their wisdom.

"People outside of those circles are expecting free education, free emotional labour from us, and kind of expecting me to justify myself for things like [the protest]. But from inside the community, and between mob, it’s been amazing. I’ve never felt so connected and supported and just loved."

Photo Credit: #MilesTweediePhotography

"I’ve never felt so strong and so confident before, because of the way my community and Tanesha has supported me," Stephanie adds.

"I feel so much more ready to go forward and take action in the future. It was stressful and it was very intense and we were all really scared that something bad would happen. But once you get through the nerves of it and get through, it’s so fulfilling and so powerful to know that we were able to contribute to giving all these people a platform to promote such an important issue."

That is helping spur Tanesha and Stephanie to co-host another Black Lives Matter event in Hyde Park on Saturday 13 June, collaborating with non-Indigenous organisers.

"We believe it’s really important that Indigenous voices and people of colour’s voices are put at the forefront of this conversation and of these protests, so we got in contact and they were very happy to accept help from us," Stephanie says.

And for those who want to be allies and lend their voices in the fight against Aboriginal deaths in custody (of which there have been more than 400 since 1991), Stephanie and Tanesha have clear instructions.

"Show up to protests and promote protests to help us increase our numbers," Stephanie asks.

"The second [step] would be to donate. We’ve posted a number of organisations in the BLM Perth event.

"But at the end of the day, this is a massive issue that is obviously at the level of government. We need the government to make changes. So we need people to keep this in mind when they’re voting. We need people to keep this in mind in regard to who they support politically, because it needs to be something that’s changed at that level."

Header Image: #MilesTweediePhotography