Recently, Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla visited Australia, and a senator of Indigenous origin did not mince words while speaking to the monarchists: After King Charles concluded his speech to Australia’s Parliament, Indigenous member of parliament, Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe interjected, “You are not my king.” “Now that you have killed us, release our land, give back what you took.” Security kicked her out of the room as soon as she spoke.
Thorpe, born as the Indigenous DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, has always campaigned for signing a treaty between Indigenous Australians and Britain. The Commonwealth of Australia to this date had never entered into any treaty relations with its aboriginal First Nations people who never relinquished their sovereignty over their territories.
King Charles, for his part, in the speech that he gave, recognized the fact that Aboriginal Australians are descendants of the earliest inhabitants of the land and spoke of the stories and knowledge he has received from the first people. Nonetheless, most Indigenous Australians are still resentful to the monarchy as they view it as a system of colonizers who were involved in successive massacres of the indigenous people and are to this date racists in their suppression of the Australian Aborigines.
The protest which Thorpe did was not the only one of its kind. Earlier, she had refused to bow during the national anthem and wore a possum-fur coat deliberately as a public protest. However, the demonstrators raised the Aboriginal flag as the duke and the duchess toured around important sites in Canberra.
The visit is the more so since King Charles has begun his first significant tour to a Commonwealth country after becoming a king. While some people came to welcome him as a representative of the monarchy, the Australia senator came bearing a message of continued colonization and other unpleasant things.
Thorpe actions led to a controversy; some thought that she and her actions were fighting for the rights of Indigenous Australians while others including the Australian Monarchist League, criticized her protest and demanded her dismissal. The royal couple goes further moving to Sydney and Samoa in the coming days.
