Britain’s King Charles III had just finished giving a speech to Australia’s Parliament House on Monday when an Indigenous senator began yelling, “You are not my king.” From the back of the room, Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted at the royal couple, “Give us our land back, give us what you stole,” as security officers moved to escort her away.
The interjection came as King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the Australian capital Canberra to meet the nation’s leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. During his speech, Charles acknowledged Australia’s First Nations people, who lived on the land for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of British settlers over 230 years ago. “Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations people have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures,” Charles said. “I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom.”
Earlier, a traditional Aboriginal welcoming ceremony was held outside Parliament House for the royal couple, but for many of the country’s Indigenous population, they are not welcome. The arrival of British settlers to Australia led to the massacre of Indigenous people at hundreds of locations around the country until as recently as the 1930s. Their ancestors still suffer from racism and systemic discrimination in a country that has failed to reverse centuries of disadvantage.
Thorpe, a Djab Wurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, has long campaigned for a treaty and has previously voiced her fierce objections to the British monarchy. Australian’s Indigenous people never ceded sovereignty and have never engaged in a treaty process with the British Crown. Australia remains a Commonwealth country with the king as its head of state.
During her swearing-in ceremony in 2022, Thorpe referred to Australia’s then-head of state as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” and was asked to take the oath again. Before she yelled at Charles, Thorpe turned her back during a recital of “God Save the King,” Australian media reported. Images showed her wearing a possum-fur coat, standing in the opposite direction of other attendees.
The Greens party said in a statement that the king’s presence was “a momentous occasion for some” but also a “visual reminder of the ongoing colonial trauma and legacies of British colonialism” for many First Nations people. In the statement, Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, a Yamatji Noongar woman, called for the king to be clear in his recognition and support of “First Nations justice, truth telling and healing.”
“He now needs to be on the right side of history,” she added. The Australian Monarchist League demanded Thorpe’s resignation after what it called a “childish demonstration.” The king and queen have not commented on the controversy, but when asked about the incident, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Charles was doing a “fantastic job.” “We should remember in the context of health, that he is out there doing his public service notwithstanding, you know, the health challenges he himself has had – so I think he’s doing a great job,” Starmer told reporters on Monday.
Source: Here