Here’s why Kristyn travelled from St Ives to the city to join Sunday’s March for Humanity

Like many denizens of the North Shore, Kristyn Haywood is not the protesting type. But on Sunday, she joined tens of thousands of Sydneysiders who walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to North Sydney in the March for Humanity.

The stated demands of the protest march were for an immediate Israeli ceasefire and withdrawal, and for all humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza. It also called on the Australian government to sanction and end its arms trade with Israel.

Over the years, the North Shore has been host to a variety of marches and protests, from residents opposed to industrial zoning, the first green ban protest to preserve Kellys Bush Park, and the Reconciliation Walk in 2000. Sunday’s march will go down as one of the biggest protests to reach the North Shore, with estimations ranging from a crowd of 90 to 300 thousand.

Haywood told the North Shore Lorikeet about her day. Her comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

“I got to [Gordon] station at 12 o'clock and there were dozens of people [there] for the same thing. More and more people coming in, just ordinary people who would never normally do this; you know, being an activist for the first time. 

I've never actually gone to a protest before this and that was the same as a lot of the people that were there. And so the mood was, ‘at least we're doing something’.

We thought the weather was perfect because here we are getting a bit uncomfortable in the rain, so many of us were saying, ‘Well, this is nothing compared to the discomfort of people in Gaza’. 

My friend Helen and I went together and then we met other locals at the train station, and so we joined them on the bridge.

As soon as we got out of Wynyard, [there] was an absolute downpour and not one person  turned around and went back into the station. 

The mood was positive, there was a camaraderie with people we didn't know. A lot of smiles. It was as if we were all connected there with the same purpose - people from all races, religions, just there to show our support, really, for Palestinian people. 

The march was called March for Humanity, which I think is just a really fitting name because this isn't about borders or religion or race or any of those things that segregate human beings and turn them into others. It's not about that.

It's about my shared connection with human beings on the other side of the world that are starving … living in atrocious conditions that none of us could even comprehend.

This is about humanity standing alongside humans on the bridge, all there for the same reasons, to show our disgust [at] the abhorrent treatment of the Palestinian people, and to send a message to the government …”