In his reflections on the 3 August 2025 'March for Humanity' over Sydney Harbour Bridge, Adam Rorris was right to describe the event as representing a political earthquake. Following the near 300,000 people who turned out to demonstrate in Sydney, Canberra turned out six days later in force for our own 'March for Humanity' demonstration.

The excerpt from Adam’s piece which I meditated on as we marched was, the Sydney Harbour Bridge belongs to the people of Sydney. They will not deny us, as we go there almost by instinct when the big moments call us. It is our place to express and affirm our humanity. It is the site of secular communion with each other, the city and the world.

I think that I felt that sense of secular communion too.

I had a discussion with a comrade prior to walking over to Civic Square, who said to me that they felt a really perplexing emotion which was that, even though Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza had reached new levels of despair and grief, they also had never felt quite so hopeful at the fresh wave of enthusiasm and energy amongst social movements seeking justice for the Palestinian people.

I think that basically encapsulated what I experienced for the rest of the day. Waiting for the speeches to commence, it was a fantastic opportunity to connect and catch up with comrades. I felt really connected and a sense of community around it. And the demonstration was both grief, anger but also hope; a sense of grief for what has happened to the people of Gaza, for everything’s that’s been lost, a sense of outrage at the calculated actions of the Israeli state, but also a real sense of hey, we’ve all come together to turn out for this, because hope is in the air, and we all share a sense of common humanity.

We marched from Civic Square over the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, facing Parliament House and then down and across to the National Library. The wind was perfect to get the flags blowing at a perfect ninety-degree angle, and I held one from the Community and Public Sector Union, my union. I ran into people I didn’t ordinary expect to see at a demonstration and said hello to them, and was happy to see them, and I suspect that our shared recognition of each other as both being there deepened our connections.

And I think it reflects a real shift in popular opinion. It’s clear at this point that there is no public support for Israel to be allowed to commit genocide. There is only public support for ending the genocide. Everyone at the demonstration showed courage because certainly, some mainstream media coverage would have you believe that these mass, participatory demonstrations are a radical fringe. But all I saw were ordinary, everyday human beings.

I haven’t felt as emotionally moved by a demonstration since the 2019 climate strike demonstrations. Those demonstrations appeared to be driving a real shift in the way society thought and acted around climate change, and I grieve that the event of the pandemic seemed to pull all the energy out of them. Seeing mass participation again for something of paramount importance is so, so wonderful.