RISE eX-detainees urge artists and athletes to Boycott the 2026 Stolenwealth Games in so called Victoria

STOP SPORTWASHING AND ARTWASHING OUR DETENTION TORTURE AND RAPE IN SO CALLED AUSTRALIA.

The Stolenwealth (“Commonwealth”) games are merely another cheap white supremacist, a corporate gimmick used to whitewash the realities and bloody histories of British colonisation across 6 continents. There is no unity in the legacy of genocide and occupation that has forced our people to have to flee from their homelands into the white supremacist refugee detention torture system in so called Australia.

Colonial theft, dispossession and genocide are no reason to celebrate and as such we call for all participating nations, athletes, artists and fans to boycott the games to stop pandering to British theft and colonisation and end the systemic, racist abuse against the detainee and eX-detainee refugee community by the Australian government. 

Don’t tell detention rape and torture survivors to stay silent when our communities are deliberately targeted on a daily basis in white supremacist Australia. Torture, abuse and rape victims in concentration camps or detention centres don’t have a choice but sportspeople, artists and musicians do. 

Here is why and how white supremacy thrives in Australia and the musicians and artists ARTWASHED our voices – (one example). In 2018 eX-detainees who survived rape and torture in Australian run detention camps requested musicians/artists to boycott the Stolenweath Games on the basis of our community members enduring ongoing torture and abuses inside and outside the Australian detention centres for over 3 decades. But our request has been regarded with clear disrespect. Some of these artists are labelled as “progressive” and as human rights activists, yet have zero respect for refugees who have endured torture and sexual abuse in Australian detention camps in the past and present. Australia’s detention rape and torture survivors should not have to educate people on this. Here are artists and musicians who refused to boycott the 2018 Stolenwealth Games.  https://twitter.com/riserefugee/status/1270577558661160960 

Bringing back the 2026 Stolenwealth games to Australia, will be another circus of SPORTSWASHING AND ARTWASHING OUR DETENTION TORTURE AND RAPE IN AUSTRALIA. 

We encourage people to take responsibility for their own communities and organise actions at embassies of participating nations, contact activists from participating nations and publicly pressure athletes and artists to pull out of the games.

We condemn the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in detention centres who come to seek protection. Every time you win a medal, you are winning a medal for colonization, genocide, occupation, systemic abuse and discrimination. This is an international crisis. Deal with the root of the crisis and act now!

As eX-detainees in so called Australia, we acknowledge that the land we seek protection on is the land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples whose sovereignty was never ceded. 

Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

RISE eX-detainees