Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe defied King Charles III during his visit to the Australian Parliament on Monday, shouting anti-colonial slogans.
“Give us back our lands, give us back what you stole from us!” shouted the parliamentarian in a tirade that lasted approximately one minute, after a speech by the 75-year-old king before the country’s elected officials and officials.
The independent senator, dressed in a fur cape, denounced what she called the genocide of indigenous Australians during the era of European colonization of Australia.
Colony for a century
Australia was a British colony for more than a century, during which thousands of Aboriginal Australians were killed and entire communities were displaced.
The country gained de facto independence in 1901, but never became a full republic. King Charles remains head of state.
Charles III is on a nine-day visit to Australia and Samoa, his first major overseas tour since he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
Political highlights
Lidia Thorpe is known for her political bashing and fierce opposition to the monarchy. When he was sworn in in 2022, he raised his right fist as he reluctantly promised to serve Queen Elizabeth II, Australia’s then head of state.
“I solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and maintain true loyalty to the colonizer Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said before being reprimanded.
“Senator Thorpe, you must recite the oath as printed,” House Speaker Sue Lines observed at the time.
Australia rejected a change to the Constitution in a referendum in 1999 to become a Republic. There is no longer any reform in this regard on the agenda.
In 2023, Australians rejected measures to recognize Indigenous Australians in the Constitution and create an Indigenous Consultative Assembly in another referendum.
Source: BFM TV
