TRANSCRIPT:
It was one of the ugliest moments in Australia's recent history.
Twenty years ago, on the 11th of December 2005, around 5,000 people flocked to the Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla for what quickly became a violent rally against Middle Eastern immigration.
Racial tensions had been simmering in Sydney for some time, but the situation reached a tipping point after two Cronulla lifeguards were assaulted by a group of men.
That event, and other alleged altercations, were reported widely across the media.
In response, thousands of text messages were circulated, promoting a so-called "Aussie pride" rally - and calling for revenge attacks on people perceived to be Middle Eastern.
Sutherland Shire Mayor Jack Boyd was a 13 year old living in Cronulla at the time.
"Both in the weeks leading up to the riots and then the subsequent months (I) got to see firsthand a lot of some pretty terrible behaviour and helicopters flying over our house for the weeks afterwards and the beaches were virtually empty and a heavy police presence all throughout the summer so it was, certainly very confronting an unusual thing for a 13 year-old to have to witness."
Footage from the day shows rampaging mobs of young men and women, chanting racist slogans and at times clashing with police.
Some individuals of Middle Eastern appearance were attacked by groups within the mob.
That evening, a large convoy of youths of Middle Eastern descent from western Sydney retaliated with further violence in Cronulla and other suburbs.
In all, 26 people were injured, 104 arrested and nearly 300 charges were laid.
Smaller riots continued to break out in surrounding suburbs in the nights that followed.
Feroz Sattar was a 17 year old Muslim who had moved from Sydney's northern beaches to its southwest.
"It was a really jarring, competing reality of how I'm perceived among my Australian peers, so it was it was really confronting for me personally, and then to also see the impact that it had on the broader community was just really, really disappointed and really sad to see that a significant proportion of people just didn't want us, and didn't think that we belonged in Australia or in surf culture."
Mayor Jack Boyd says the events were not representative of the Cronulla community back then, or now, but acknowledges the views that were on display need to be addressed.
"Council has done a lot of work and in trying to make sure that we support a lot of initiatives, that make it really clear to people, whether it's through Harmony Week, Refugee Week, we partner with a lot of multicultural organisations, to really drive home that safety of access, as well for surf education."
One of those programs was created by Feroz who co-founded Surf Brothers, an organisation teaching swimming, surf survival and surf lifesaving skills to young people from migrant communities.
He says the program has seen strong bonds develop between his Muslim community and the area's surf lifesaving community.
"The power of relational health and communities just organically coming together to help each other out to develop skills and have a more inclusive surf culture that's representative of modern Australia, has formed some really lovely, genuine friendships between communities that have had really fractured relationships for the last 20 years or so."But that sense of optimism is not shared uniformly throughout communities.
Peter Doukas is Chair of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Council of Australia and says racist messages within the community have been growing louder.
"We've seen only this year actual neo-Nazis on the front steps of the Australian Parliament. We've seen acts by certain senators in the national parliament that would've been universally condemned 20 years ago. So I think that the effects of racism and regression in Australia are actually in emboldened in recent years, and it gives us all in the multicultural space cause for concern, and caused to mobilise ourselves about the taking control of the conversation about what an Australian is."
Mass anti-immigration rallies in Sydney and Melbourne in August and October this year were attended by thousands, at times breaking out into contained violence.
While the Cronulla riots have at various points been partly attributed to mob mentality, alcohol, and anti-social elements, Mr Doukas believes modern expressions of anti-immigration sentiment are in some ways more concerning.
“Well, the riots were a one-off flash-in-the-pan as we say, whereas the rallies that we've seen more recently are far more coordinated and have a political agenda and that's something that we didn't see. After the rallies, they didn't forge a movement that was built up. There was general condemnation and and I think overwhelming community condemnation towards what happened and towards the messages and the violence of what we had seen on Cronulla Beach 20 years ago. Today we have coordinated pseudo-political movements that espouse similar ideals and that's a great concern to us." Back in Cronulla, Tony Moarbes has run the Eat Lebanese restaurant since 2020.
He has been coming to the area since 2014 when his father opened a fruit and vegetable store, then a coffee shop.
He remembers being initially nervous about moving to the area, but says his family has been embraced by the community.
"But the most significant moment for me remembering everything was when we decided to put the word Lebanese on a sign. I think we were the first one since the right to actually do that and I remember being very nervous thinking okay, are we taking a big step here and I wonder what's gonna happen. Honestly 99 per cent of it was really overwhelmingly positive. I think people are ready for the change. We did have a couple of idiots come through and I'm almost 100 per cent certain they won't even from the area but yeah, it's just been really positive for us."
He also believes there is scope to improve relations between different cultural groups, if people of all backgrounds are willing to reach out to others.
"I think Aussies are a very welcoming community and I feel equally Australian as I do Lebanese and I think people need to kind of take a step back sometimes if they feel apprehensive towards a new culture, and just look for the positives - we all have a lot to offer each other."
