Written by Jyoti, Animal ACTivism Collective Liaison
On Saturday 22 February a small group of us took vegan banners and attended the Refugee Action Committee’s vigil in Garema Place for Reza Berati, the Iranian refugee who was killed at Manus Island. You can read more about Reza Berati here.
Our presence at the vigil received intrigue and interest from the public. One lady came up to us and said that she didn’t know vegans were political and was so happy to see ‘us’ (vegans) there at the rally supporting refugees and being involved in social justice issues. Another person who chatted with us said a similar thing, and said she was so happy to see us there. Also, two Hazara refugees from Afghanistan stopped to chat, and shared their stories with us.
AnimalACTivism Collective plans to organise more actions like this so there is a more visible vegan presence. Many of us go to protests/vigils around social justice issues, and we thought it’s good to identify ourselves as vegans at these things so people can start to understand better that we care about human beings, the environment and a host of justice issues, as well as animal rights.
It’s common for other groups to attend such events with banners identifying themselves, so us letting people know we are there as vegans is nothing out of the ordinary. It would be awesome to have many more vegans standing with us at the next action! If you’d like to join us in solidarity at future events please contact Jyoti at activism@veganact.org.au
You can find AnimalACTivism Collective on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/AnimalACTivismCollective
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.524651890984876.1073741831.172595392857196&type=3
We also attended this protest in April 2014
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.552669794849752.1073741844.172595392857196&type=3
And this protest in October 2014
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.656156971167700.1073741851.172595392857196&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.655469654569765.1073741850.172595392857196&type=3
