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Organisers of Newcastle's inaugural Invasion Day Rally say the strong turnout at marches across the country showed that non-indigenous people were starting to question their national day. Amy Thunig, a Hunter-based Gamilaroi woman, Macquarie University academic and media commentator, told the Newcastle Herald that Australia Day should be abandoned until the government had signed treaties with First Nations people. "My position, and I don't speak for the whole community ... is the day needs to be abolished until the work's been done," she said. "I will gladly join the table to talk about celebrations when the last treaty has been signed, but we need nation-specific treaties, and that's a couple of years of work. "Until the treaty's in place, how can we even pretend to have a unifying position." The Civic Park rally drew a crowd of more than 1500, many of them non-indigenous people. The crowd bore banners and placards on a march through the streets around the park, a few hundred metres from Australia Day celebrations on the foreshore. "This was organised and pulled together in under three weeks, and we only gave around 10 days' public notice for people to know there was a rally, so I think the turnout here, and the massive turnouts at protest marches around the nation, is a definite sign that people are beginning to understand why there is debate around the day," Ms Thunig said. "The more people know, the more they are on board. "January 26th is a significant date, but not one to celebrate. "It's easy to position protesters as being divisive, but the more non-indigenous Australians come to understand the violence that has built what they benefit from today, the more I see non-indigenous Australians wanting to contribute to changing the current state of things. That's very encouraging." Australia is the only major Commonwealth country to hold no treaties with its original inhabitants. "January 26th: What does this date mean? [It] marks the commencement of invasion, the commencement of the massacres, of the stealing of our children, of the stealing of our lands. All of these lands remain unceded." The Aboriginal story of enslavement, stolen children and ecocide "began 232 years ago when Phillip decided to claim the land and declared terra nullius, the lie that began the myth and the misinformation that we are less than human". Ms Thunig called on that story to be given prominence in museums and memorials. She said she had organised the rally so the region's many indigenous people did not have to travel to Sydney to protest on January 26. Aboriginal elder Uncle Bill Smith conducted a smoking ceremony before the speeches and told the crowd about his culture's deep connection with the land.

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