An Australian Senator Defends Interrupting King Charles.
An Australian senator has defended racially abusing King Charles outside Parliament House, claiming it is an indigenous issue because “he’s not of this land”, after being cleared by police.
Lidia Thorpe, an Australian Aboriginal woman associated with the Greens party interrupted for about a minute by shouting as government members awaited of being sworn in at Parliament House Canberra on Wednesday.
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She screams that this is “genocide against OUR people” before adding: “This isn’t your land, you’re not my King.”
However, Aboriginal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan — who had earlier welcomed the King and Queen to her country — said that Thorpe’s protest was “disrespectful” of the traditional welcome she gave on behalf of community members.
The ceremony ended without any mention of the fall and they made their way outside to greet hundreds who had been waiting in hope of catching a glimpse.
Thorpe said she was making a “public statement” to the King when asked about her demonstration later by BBC.
“Being a sovereign you have to be of the land,” she said. “He is not of this land.”
Among them is Thorpe, an independent senator from Victoria who has called for a treaty between the Australian government and its oldest living civilization.
Australia is in a bit of a different position, there was never any treaty signed with the Indigenous people as we have seen in New Zealand and many other former British colonies. For years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been very clear that they did not ceded their sovereignty or land to the Crown.
She asked the King for a mandate to direct parliament to negotiate a peace treaty with First Nations
That concluded: “We can lead that, we can do that, we could be a better country — but we cannot bow to the colonizer… his grandparents presumably are the ones he spoke about in there who were out and about responsible for massacres of people including my ancestors.”
Wearing a traditional possum skin cloak Thorpe labeled the late Queen Elizabeth II as “colonizing” and she was forced to repeat her oath when sworn in as senator earlier this year.
For years, there has been a debate on how to address the broad disparities between First Nations people and the rest of society — poorer health, wealth and education outcomes; higher rates of imprisonment.
Australia holds the dole in almost as much contempt, given that a referendum for increased political rights and recognition of Indigenous people failed so miserably last year.
Thorpe was elected as a Greens MP into state parliament, but also quit the party over their support for Yes campaign in that vote as she backed another movement and she has carried out some highly publicized stunts before.
While others were there to support the royal couple with some queuing in the punishing Canberra sun all morning outside Parliament House, waving Australian flags.
Jamie Karpas, 20 said she had not known that the royal couple was visiting Monday and “Oh my God as someone who saw Harry and Meghan the last time they were here I’m so excited. I reckon the Royal Family are. We do get some information though. They are the reason that they are a huge part of our lives.”
CJ Adams, a US-Australian student at Australian National University added: “I mean he’s head of state over the British Empire right — you’ve got to take what experiences come your way while you’re in Canberra.”
A group of small number dissenters had also assembled on the lawn at the front side of Parliament House building.
The royal visit to Canberra was always going to be about Australia’s Indigenous peoples but thanks for Thorpe it directly confronted the King and Queen.
The King and Queen landed in Canberra earlier today with the VIPs — politicians, schoolchildren and a representative of the Indigenous people (Aunty Serena Williams from Ngunnawal) waiting on the tarmac to greet them.
They were officially welcomed into the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra to the sound of a didgeridoo.
The King also talked about his visits to indigenous communities and lessons he learned from the experience, one that had “formed indelibly in my own personal journey.”
“I have seen the strength, courage and sheer determination of people who for so long had been denied justice,” He said during his numerous visits to Australia.
However, as he took his seat Thorpe’s protest rang around the hall.
Aunty Sheridan, the Aboriginal elder who gave part of the official welcome speech to the King and Queen at Parliament House has rebuked Ms Town for her intervention
She said: “The King’s health is not good. He is suffering through chemo therapy and this was the last thing he needed.
I really appreciate him coming here. Perhaps he’ll never come again. Tons of people think what I do.
While Buckingham Palace made no official comment on Thorpe’s action — preferring to note the crowds which turned out to see the King and Queen in Canberra.
A palace source told that the ‘small royal family was touched to have been shown such great support by so many thousands of people.
Arsenal is a Commonwealth realm with the King as head of state.
Australia has been debating for decades whether to sever ties with the monarchy and become a republic. It was put to the public in a referendum — the only way to make such an amendment of its constitution -in 1999 where it failed overwhelmingly.
Polls show the movement has taken off since then, and the country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is a long time republican (he shook His Majesty’s hand just before Mesa intervened on her high horse).
Albanese has rejected the idea of a second referendum so early after Indigenous recognition failed at the last one.
The visit by King Charles, who has been having cancer treatment this year, is his first to Australia asking The move comes after it emerged that the Prince of Wales was gearing up… The height of his health has meant it is a shorter tour than some of the Prince’s previous royal visits.
The King took a lighter moment petting an alpaca wearing a tiny crown as he mingled with the public following his visit to Canberra’s war memorial earlier in the day.
The King,a well-known environmentalist who planted trees at Government House with the royal couple and visited his National Bushfire Behavior Research Laboratory.
