Protesters march through downtown Toronto on Thursday to draw attention to aboriginal issues. Protesters march through downtown Toronto on Thursday to draw attention to aboriginal issues. (Pras Rajagopalan/CBC)

First Nations people marched through downtown Toronto on Thursday, waving flags, including upside down Canadian ones, and pounding on drums.

It was the latest in a series of protest marches coinciding with the arrival of G20 leaders and other delegates in the city.

Organizers said they were hoping to draw international media attention to aboriginal issues.

"We're here basically to bring attention to the impact that G8 and G20 meetings have and the effect their social and economic policies are going to have on indigenous people, lands and resources," said Russell Diabo, a Quebec Mohawk who is a spokesman for the group Defenders of the Land.

Activist Jaggi Singh says his group will protest the extensive security around the G20 summit. Activist Jaggi Singh says his group will protest the extensive security around the G20 summit. (Timothy Neesam/CBC)

"We have a lot of unresolved issues we need to see addressed domestically, without Stephen Harper talking about going overseas and dealing with development there."

The protesters highlighted First Nations land claims and the still unsolved cases of more than 500 aboriginal women who have been slain or gone missing across Canada in the last three decades.

About 1,000 First Nations protesters walked peacefully along University Avenue chanting and singing. At Toronto City Hall, they continued their protest, watched over by Toronto police, and the march ended with a rally at Allan Gardens.

It was the first large-scale protest of the G8 and G20 summit week and took place without any incidents or arrests.

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However, at a mid-afternoon news conference, activist Jaggi Singh from the group No One Is Illegal hinted that the peaceful protests may soon end.

Standing in front of the newly erected security fence, Singh said, "This [fence] is completely illegitimate and it deserves to be taken down."

He said the $1 billion in security and fences would not stop protesters "from attacking — and I use that word — from attacking the people who are responsible for enormous misery in the world."

Singh said the G20 leaders deserve to be confronted and the protest groups will be begin doing that on Friday.

With files from The Canadian Press