Protesters have been told to use hand sanitiser frequently and wear face masks and most appear to be doing so, but social distancing is proving difficult.

The Aboriginal leader said that there was a “deliberate ignorance” in Australia about the history of the land. “The British tried everything to eradicate us after their invasion but it didn’t work.”

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“We want you to listen to our voice, and that is why I believe we are here today with so much support, wanting our voice to be heard and listened to and respected.”

Following a minute of silence at 11.26am, two women with white ochre on their foreheads sang a mourning song while the crowd beat their chests in time with the clapping sticks.

Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, then told the crowd January 26 is Invasion Day and not a day to celebrate.

“We still have guns pointed to our heads. We still have a boot on our necks. Our babies are still being stolen. Our babies are still being incarcerated and thrown in prison. Ten-year-old babies are being locked up in this country . Is that something to celebrate? Why are people having barbecues and shrimp on the barbie and celebrating the death and destruction of the oldest continuing living culture in the world?”

“We can’t rely on the so-called leadership in this country. I see that racism when I’m in that place,” she said, gesturing to Parliament House. “It’s real, Iike America, there is a far-right rot in the country’s parliament.” she said.

She described a “slimy pandemic” of racism in Australia that needs to be eradicated.

“It’s killing us,” Senator Thorpe said, and called for a treaty. A treaty “means peace, a treaty means equality and a treaty means justice,” she said.

Protesters split into smaller groups for march

Groups of about 100, separated by about five metres, started marching down Bourke Street at 11am, with other protesters joining the procession after speeches at Parliament House finished at 12.30pm. Most are being led by government-approved coronavirus marshalls wearing red armbands.

The red, yellow and black of Indigenous flags stretched hundreds of metres up the tram tracks of Bourke Street, given life by the leg slapping, clapping and chanting of individual groups.

Indigenous rappers A.B. Original’s song January 26 blared along Bourke Street as a group with a sign stating “Captain Cook brought the first pandemic” passed.

One person held a sign reading: “White Australia has a black history.” Another sign read: “No pride in genocide.“

Eighteen “legal observers”, wearing pink bibs and masks, are monitoring the event.

Equipped with video cameras and business cards outlining protesters’ rights, their role is to gather objective evidence in case of trouble between police and protesters.

Police are also filming the protest from the rooftop of the Imperial Hotel on the corner of Bourke and Spring streets.

Tensions flare

Police were forced to break up a scuffle between protesters and a man in a shirt bearing the name of a far-right political group early in the afternoon.

The man arrived in front of Flinders Street Train Station about 1.15pm, where thousands of protesters were gathered, wearing a black Proud Boys T-shirt before draping himself in an Australian flag with “come on Aussies” printed on it.

He blew up an Australian-themed beach ball and stood for several minutes until a protester approached and kicked the ball out of his hand. A face-off ensued as a group of protesters gathered closely around the middle-aged man and the two parties pushed each other without throwing punches.

Police stepped in between the groups shortly after and started leading the man down Flinders Street, into a car park where police vehicles were parked.

It’s unclear if the man was planning to attend a People’s Australia Day Parade – protesting the cancellation of Melbourne’s Australia Day parade – scheduled to start near the Botanical Gardens at 2pm and march to Catani Gardens.

The event is hosted by the Melbourne Freedom Rally group, which was associated with last year’s anti-lockdown protests.

“Proud Boys” is a male-only right-wing political group that the Canadian government this week labelled a “terrorist entity”. The man’s shirt had “F--- ANTIFA” written on the back, in reference to the left-wing, anti-fascist political group.

Tuesday’s protests were peaceful until the man’s arrival and speeches continued soon after.

Dawn mourning services

The march comes after hundreds of people, including Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp, gathered for a dawn mourning service in the steady rain at Kings Domain.

A minute’s silence to remember those who have passed was led by senior Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy at the service.

“Our heartache and our loss can not be measured,” she told the crowd.“Still today, we lose too many of our people.”

Bundjalung-Yorta Yorta man and historian John Patten told the crowd that January 26 represented a day where “many minds and hearts are in conflict, but they don’t need to be”.

“It’s been interesting to see over the last two years how the winds have changed in our direction,” he said.

“More and more Australians are starting to see and starting to speak out and understand that there is something more to be said about Australia Day: Mourning Day, Invasion Day.”

Senator Thorpe read a list of massacres of Indigenous people in Victoria.

A number of other councils, including Port Phillip Council, also held mourning events on Tuesday.

Later in the morning, Wurundjeri elder Joy Wandin Murphy took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison in an impassioned speech at a flag-raising ceremony at Melbourne’s Government House attended by Premier Daniel Andrews and Governor Linda Dessau.

Last week Mr Morrison told Cricket Australia to stick to cricket after the governing body scrapped the term Australia Day from the promotion of its Big Bash matches.

Aunty Joy said those comments show the fight for Indigenous equality had gone backwards under the current government.

“I’m very disappointed in what the Prime Minister had to say about Cricket Australia when in his first term of office he made a statement about changing the constitution. We talk about, ‘let there be trust, let there be confidence’ and all we hear is about being patient. We’ve almost lost that patience.”

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She said that children and adults had been taken “well before their time and for the only reason that they were considered sub-human or not fit for this earth”.

“I was reminded today that I’ve been coming here for 20 years and today I still get a lump in my throat because I don’t really feel like I belong. I’m frustrated.”

Referring to Australia Day, she asked Australians to think about making changes and “where Australia is at”.

“And I urge you, let’s move forward for a new celebration in a new time.”

In Governor Dessau’s speech, she thanked Ms Murphy for her “thoughtful words”.

“Aunty Joy, your words were particularly important this year when our choice of words is front of mind.”

Ms Dessau said Tuesday was the first time the national anthem would be sung with the words “for we are one and free” instead on “young and free”.

Tuesday’s Invasion Day rally has been organised by the Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, the same group behind Melbourne’s Black Lives Matter rally in June.

That protest attracted tens of thousands of people and became a political flashpoint for weeks, but no incidences of community transmission of COVID-19 were recorded because of it.

Last week, Premier Daniel Andrews said Victorians should not attend Invasion Day rallies, with large congregations still banned under COVID-19 rules.

“This will be a different Australia Day, we’re in the midst of a global pandemic,” he said.

“It’s no time to be protesting, it just isn’t. We’ve built something precious and unique, Victorians have, through their sacrifice and their commitment and their compassion for each other and we have to safeguard that.”

With Carolyn Webb, Ashleigh McMillan