‘You are not my king’ – Australian senator accuses monarchy of ‘genocide’
The King has been berated by an Australian senator who accused the monarchy of “genocide” against her nation’s indigenous people and declared: “You are not my king”.
Lidia Thorpe, who campaigns on First Nations issues, disrupted Charles’s welcome to the capital Canberra with her outburst which overshadowed a speech by the King highlighting his debt to the descendants of Australia’s first inhabitants.
During the event Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese hinted at his hopes Australia will ditch the monarchy and become a republic when he told the King: “Nothing stands still”.
Demonstrations
Charles and Camilla have faced low-key demonstrations during their tour of Australia, which began on Monday, from supporters of First Nations resistance to colonisation, who have been displaying a banner with the word “decolonise” at a number of events.
But the protest from the elected representative is likely to be seen as an embarrassment for Charles, who is making his first visit to Australia as King.
After the King spoke to guests at Parliament House, Ms Thorpe, who wore a possum skin coat and carried a traditional message stick, shouted: “You are not our King, you are not sovereign … you have committed genocide against our people.
“Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us … Our babies, our people. You destroyed our land.”
As she was gently ushered from the building’s hall, she screamed: “Give us a treaty – we want a treaty with this country … This is not your land, this is not your land, you are not my King, you are not our King.”
Welcome
It is understood the King was unruffled and did not let the outburst overshadow what the royal party viewed as a positive day in the Australian capital.
Aunty Violet Sheridan, a senior Ngunnawal Elder who formally welcomed Charles and Camilla to her ancestral lands when they entered Parliament House, said the senator did not speak for her.
She said: “We are all so disappointed by it. To have that in the Great Hall – disgusting. I am so upset about her. He has waited so long to be king, he has rehearsed for it all his life.
“He is our king, our sovereign and he has got cancer.”
Charles and Camilla were earlier welcomed at Canberra airport with a traditional smoking ceremony where guests wafted burning eucalyptus over themselves, chosen for its health benefits in light of the King’s ongoing cancer treatment.
The royal couple commemorated Australia’s war dead at the national memorial, laying floral tributes as hundreds of well-wishers turned out to see the couple – including an alpaca who sneezed in front of the King.
Clear message
But the protest will make headlines and the senator told BBC News afterwards: “I wanted to send a clear message to the King of England that he is not the king of this country.
“He is not my king. He is not sovereign. We are sovereign. To be sovereign, you have to be of the land. He is not of this land.”
In a statement before her outburst the senator criticised Mr Albanese, claiming his government had backed down on a treaty with Australia’s First Nations.
Mr Albanese has a long-term aim of steering Australia towards a becoming a republic but the plans are on hold after Australians overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to indigenous people in a referendum held last year.
In a speech before Charles’s address, the prime minister said to Charles: “You have shown great respect for Australians even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown.
“Nothing stands still.”
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She is correct. I hope Aus drops Charlie as head of state and soon. Can do the same here as well.
There are tens of thousands in Wales who say this is not your Land WALES and you are not our King and there hundreds of Thousands in England who say you are not my King Republicans
.. and still there are loads more who blindly adhere to monarchy as though the monarch is a direct descendant of some God. Blind spot, or what ?
It reminds me of these two Inuit women, a few years, in Iqaluit, Canada, who have been humiliated by the then Prince Charles and his wife Camilla. They wanted to honour them in singing a traditional song called Katajjaq, but it was only weirdness and grotesqueness for their prince and princess who couldn’t stop laughing…
“There is consent in the smile, while laughter is often a refusal”, Victor Hugo.
Chwarae Teg!
Reply to Jack and Adrian, I bet you were apoplectic with Johnsons and Rees Moggs antics in our very own parliament
I’m not sure of the relevance to be honest. Since you ask though I believe Johnson to be a buffoon: Rees-Mogg I have no particular opinion of.
No need to go to London to find buffoons, we have a supply at Y Senedd, performing regularly, spouting bollox with very rare bouts of anything useful to say.
Time to ditch these entitled spongers from Australia and everywhere else, including Cymru.
This snobbery belongs in the 17th century.
However much they minimise it the Royal Family do worry about protests like this leading to PR disasters which stay on record. The BBC archives show what happened when the King visited Cardiff Castle in 2022.
I only recognise democratically elected heads of state, not ones selected via the magic vagina method.
Ausies a are a bit slow catching up with us. 55 years ago we had him in a bulletproof vest hiding behind 18 foot thick walls while bombs exploded around town. To be fair he did get the message and that royal investiture pantomime was the last of its type.
A day to remember the dead…