‘You are not my king,’ Indigenous Australian senator yells at visiting King Charles
Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe, center, disrupts proceedings as Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024.
By Associated Press - Monday, October 21, 2024
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday.
Sen. Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.
“You committed genocide against our people,” she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us - our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”
No treaty was ever struck between British colonizers and Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
Charles spoke quietly with Albanese while security officials stopped Thorpe from approaching.
“This is not your land. You are not my king,” Thorpe yelled as she was ushered from the hall.
Thorpe is renowned for high-profile protest action. When she was affirmed as a senator in 2022, she wasn’t allowed to describe the then-monarch as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” She briefly blocked a police float in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Madri Gras last year by lying on the street in front of it. Last year, she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after video emerged of her abusing male patrons.
Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, made an oblique reference to the issue in his speech welcoming the monarch.
“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,” Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing stands still.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep the British king as Australia’s monarch, said that many supporters of a republic were honored to attend a reception for the Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.
“People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed and that’s just the republicans,” Dutton quipped.
But Australia’s six state government signaled their support for an Australian head of state by declining invitations to the reception. They each said they had more pressing engagements on Monday, but monarchists agreed the royals had been snubbed.
Charles used the start of his speech to thank Canberra Indigenous elder Auntie Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the king and queen.
“Let me also say how deeply I appreciated this morning’s moving Welcome to Country ceremony, which offers me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people, and all First Nations peoples who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” Charles added.
Australians decided in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. That result is widely regarded to have been the consequence of disagreement about how a president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.
Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the subject during his current three-year term in government. But it is a possibility if his center-left Labor Party is re-elected at elections due by May next year.
Charles was drawn into Australia’s republic debate months before his visit.
The Australian Republic Movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties with Britain, wrote to Charles in December last year requesting a meeting in Australia and for the king to advocate their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March to say the king’s meetings would be decided upon by the Australian government. A meeting with the ARM does not appear on the official itinerary.
“Whether Australia becomes a republic is … a matter for the Australian public to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.
Earlier Monday, Charles and Camilla laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial then shook hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.
The memorial estimated 4,000 people had turned out to see the couple.
Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to a scaled-down itinerary. It is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and the first since he became king in 2022. It is the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II traveled to the distant nation in 2011.
Charles and Camilla rested the day after their arrival late Friday before making their first public appearance of the trip at a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.
Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet hundreds of people who gathered under clear skies flying Australian flags. The temperature was forecast to reach a mild high of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).
On Wednesday, Charles will travel to Samoa, where he will open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Why an Australian senator heckled King Charles
Katy Watson
BBC News
Reporting from Canberra
Oct 21, 2024
'You are not my King': Moment King Charles is heckled by Australian politician
Lidia Thorpe is no stranger to controversy and it’s not the first time she’s voiced her views on the British monarchy.
The Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman has been a senator for Victoria since 2020, the first Aboriginal senator from that state.
Prior to that, she had a history of Indigenous activism - she also worked as the chairperson of Naidoc (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) for the state of Victoria, an organisation that works to recognise and teach Australians about First Nations cultures and their histories.
In 2022, while being sworn in to parliament after a re-election, she called the late Queen a coloniser.
“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising her majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said, as she was being sworn in.
After criticism from other senators, she then repeated the oath as printed.
So Monday’s incident wouldn’t have come as much surprise to anyone who follows Australian politics. Lidia Thorpe has made her views clear - that British settlement saw huge numbers of Indigenous people massacred and the scars of colonisation are still very apparent for many First Nations people in Australia.
Whether or not you agree with Lidia Thorpe’s approach, the fact is that there are deep disparities between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians when it comes to many indicators including education, health and life expectancy.
Last year Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a young Indigenous man was more likely to go to jail than university, which is borne out by statistics, as ABC showed.
And between 2020 and 2022, the life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was estimated to be eight years shorter than non-Indigenous Australians.
“I wanted to send a clear message to the King of England that he’s not the King of this country, he’s not my king, he’s not sovereign,” Thorpe told the BBC after being removed from the Great Hall after heckling. “To be sovereign you have to be of this land. He’s not of this land.”
She went on.
“How can he stand up there and say he’s the King of our country - he’s stolen so much wealth from our people and from our land and he needs to give that back. And he needs to entertain a conversation for a peace treaty in this country,” she said.
“We can lead that, we can do that - we can be a better country but we cannot bow to the coloniser whose ancestors he spoke about in there are responsible for mass murder, for mass genocide.”
Katy Watson
BBC News
Reporting from Canberra
Oct 21, 2024
'You are not my King': Moment King Charles is heckled by Australian politician
Lidia Thorpe is no stranger to controversy and it’s not the first time she’s voiced her views on the British monarchy.
The Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman has been a senator for Victoria since 2020, the first Aboriginal senator from that state.
Prior to that, she had a history of Indigenous activism - she also worked as the chairperson of Naidoc (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) for the state of Victoria, an organisation that works to recognise and teach Australians about First Nations cultures and their histories.
In 2022, while being sworn in to parliament after a re-election, she called the late Queen a coloniser.
“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising her majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said, as she was being sworn in.
After criticism from other senators, she then repeated the oath as printed.
So Monday’s incident wouldn’t have come as much surprise to anyone who follows Australian politics. Lidia Thorpe has made her views clear - that British settlement saw huge numbers of Indigenous people massacred and the scars of colonisation are still very apparent for many First Nations people in Australia.
Whether or not you agree with Lidia Thorpe’s approach, the fact is that there are deep disparities between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians when it comes to many indicators including education, health and life expectancy.
Last year Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a young Indigenous man was more likely to go to jail than university, which is borne out by statistics, as ABC showed.
And between 2020 and 2022, the life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was estimated to be eight years shorter than non-Indigenous Australians.
“I wanted to send a clear message to the King of England that he’s not the King of this country, he’s not my king, he’s not sovereign,” Thorpe told the BBC after being removed from the Great Hall after heckling. “To be sovereign you have to be of this land. He’s not of this land.”
She went on.
“How can he stand up there and say he’s the King of our country - he’s stolen so much wealth from our people and from our land and he needs to give that back. And he needs to entertain a conversation for a peace treaty in this country,” she said.
“We can lead that, we can do that - we can be a better country but we cannot bow to the coloniser whose ancestors he spoke about in there are responsible for mass murder, for mass genocide.”
Reuters
Lidia Thorpe was escorted out by security after she heckled King Charles
One of Lidia Thorpe’s biggest grievances is the fact that Australia is the only Commonwealth nation that has never signed a treaty with its Indigenous people. She’s been pushing for that as a priority.
For her, last year’s referendum on a Voice to Parliament - a body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders providing advice to parliament on Indigenous issues - was a distraction from what was important - a treaty.
Australians resoundingly voted against the proposal and she was one of a minority of First Nations people who also voted no.
She told the BBC at the time that the Voice was about "assimilating us into the colonial constitution to make us nice, neat little Indigenous Australians that will continue to be oppressed by the coloniser".
Indigenous Australian senator defends heckling King
Aboriginal Australians: 'Could the Queen have done more?'
But she was in the minority among First Nations people to do so. Regions with a high proportion of Indigenous Australians overwhelmingly voted yes but Aboriginal people make up close to 4% of Australia’s population. Nationally, just over 60% of voters across Australia voted against.
Not all Indigenous leaders appear as troubled by royal visits as Lidia Thorpe.
Allira Davis, co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue, said she respected the late Queen, even describing her as “beautiful”.
What about the current visit by King Charles?
“I don't think it's that important. We're our own country,” Allira Davis told the BBC, speaking before Lidia Thorpe heckled him in Canberra.
“Understanding the history of what has happened in this country is really, really key. We're not just a white country anymore. We're a very brown country. We're a very multicultural country.
“So I'm all for becoming a republic, but we need to deal with recognising our First Nations people.”
So although Lidia Thorpe reflects a view shared by many about the damage that colonisation did - and still does - not everyone agrees with her approach.
Local media have reported that former co-workers have found her difficult to work with.
But Lidia Thorpe - who is now an independent after leaving the Greens over the party’s support for the Yes vote in the referendum - is unlikely to change tack. She thinks the King needs to play a bigger role in making good the ills of the past.
Lidia Thorpe was escorted out by security after she heckled King Charles
One of Lidia Thorpe’s biggest grievances is the fact that Australia is the only Commonwealth nation that has never signed a treaty with its Indigenous people. She’s been pushing for that as a priority.
For her, last year’s referendum on a Voice to Parliament - a body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders providing advice to parliament on Indigenous issues - was a distraction from what was important - a treaty.
Australians resoundingly voted against the proposal and she was one of a minority of First Nations people who also voted no.
She told the BBC at the time that the Voice was about "assimilating us into the colonial constitution to make us nice, neat little Indigenous Australians that will continue to be oppressed by the coloniser".
Indigenous Australian senator defends heckling King
Aboriginal Australians: 'Could the Queen have done more?'
But she was in the minority among First Nations people to do so. Regions with a high proportion of Indigenous Australians overwhelmingly voted yes but Aboriginal people make up close to 4% of Australia’s population. Nationally, just over 60% of voters across Australia voted against.
Not all Indigenous leaders appear as troubled by royal visits as Lidia Thorpe.
Allira Davis, co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue, said she respected the late Queen, even describing her as “beautiful”.
What about the current visit by King Charles?
“I don't think it's that important. We're our own country,” Allira Davis told the BBC, speaking before Lidia Thorpe heckled him in Canberra.
“Understanding the history of what has happened in this country is really, really key. We're not just a white country anymore. We're a very brown country. We're a very multicultural country.
“So I'm all for becoming a republic, but we need to deal with recognising our First Nations people.”
So although Lidia Thorpe reflects a view shared by many about the damage that colonisation did - and still does - not everyone agrees with her approach.
Local media have reported that former co-workers have found her difficult to work with.
But Lidia Thorpe - who is now an independent after leaving the Greens over the party’s support for the Yes vote in the referendum - is unlikely to change tack. She thinks the King needs to play a bigger role in making good the ills of the past.
Who is Lidia Thorpe? Australian senator shares cartoon of King Charles beheading
Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe staged a protest against King Charles after his speech at Parliament House in Canberra.
Ross McGuinness
Mon 21 October 2024
The Australian senator who shouted "You are not my king" at King Charles has shared a cartoon image of the monarch in which he is beheaded.
Charles was heckled on Monday by Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal independent senator who is a fierce campaigner for Indigenous people's rights and has a history of criticising the monarchy.
Hours after her verbal attack on the King, Thorpe posted a cartoon on her Instagram stories that shows him after being beheaded.
The image had been shared on Instagram by its creator, artist Matt Chun, who posted it alongside a quote from Thorpe's message to the King earlier in the day. The cartoon shows the King's head outside his crown, under Thorpe's statement, "You are not our king."
At the end of a speech delivered by Charles at Australia's Parliament House in the capital Canberra, Thorpe launched a verbal attack on him, claiming "genocide" had been committed against "our people", and demanded a treaty between Australia's First Nations and its government.
The independent senator from Victoria shouted: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe, centre, stages a protest against King Charles at Parliament House, Canberra, Australia. (Reuters)
“Give us a treaty – we want a treaty with this country. This is not your land, you are not my king, you are not our king.”
Charles had just left the lectern after his speech to rejoin Queen Camilla when Thorpe started shouting - her verbal attack lasted for about one minute before she was led from the room by security.
Afterwards, Thorpe told the BBC: “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.
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe is led away by security after protesting against King Charles at Parliament House in Canberra. (Reuters)
King Charles during a reception at Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, which was interrupted by a protesting senator. (Reuters)
“We have been demanding a treaty for decades and decades. There is a sophisticated genocide going on against my people. We have… almost 24,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children that have been taken from their families.”
Following the incident, Thorpe posted on X, formerly Twitter: "Not my King. Treaty now."
In his speech, Charles had spoken of the debt he owed to Australia’s Indigenous people.
He said: “Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honour of sharing, so generously, their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom.”
Who is Lidia Thorpe?
The 51-year-old politician has a long history of activism, protest and defending the rights of Australia's Indigenous people, as well as publicly criticising the monarchy.
She has been the senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state.
Thorpe had been a member of the Greens and was the party's deputy leader in the Senate but quit her position after revelations she had a relationship with Dean Martin, the former head of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, while she was serving on the parliament's law enforcement committee.
Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe is known for her political activism. (Getty Images)
She left the party entirely to sit as an independent senator in 2023 over its backing for the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, which she opposed, instead calling for a treaty process with the Aboriginal people.
Thorpe, an Aboriginal woman of Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara descent, was born in 1973 and grew up in Housing Commission flats in Collingwood, Melbourne, and became a single mother at the age of 17 - she has three children.
She was declared bankrupt in 2013 and said that it had resulted from domestic violence, and was discharged from bankruptcy in 2016.
In 2017, Thorpe won a by-election as a Greens party candidate to take her seat in the Victorian state parliament, the first Indigenous woman to do so.
Senator Lidia Thorpe during her swearing-in on 6 October 2020. (Getty Images)
Although she lost that seat a year later, she was preselected in 2020 to become a Greens senator in the federal parliament. She wore a traditional Aboriginal possum-skin cloak when being sworn in and raised her fist in a "Black power" salute.
In 2022, after being re-elected, Thorpe criticised the monarchy by referring to the then Queen as "the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" during her swearing-in ceremony. She was forced to take the oath again, removing her reference to "colonising".
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe during an 'abolish the monarchy' protest outside the British Consulate in Melbourne on 22 September 2022, a national day of mourning in Australia following Queen Elizabeth II's death. (Getty Images)
Lidia Thorpe with fake blood on her hands during a protest calling for the monarchy to be abolished. (Getty Images)
During an Australian national day of mourning following Elizabeth II's death in September of that year, Thorpe protested in an "abolish the monarchy" demonstration in Melbourne, in which she covered her hands in fake blood.
Thorpe said: "This is what today is about, the Crown has blood on their hands. Our people are still dying in this country every single day."
Senator Lidia Thorpe, left, and a man dressed as King Charles during a protest in Melbourne in May 2023 opposing his coronation. (Getty Images)
In May 2023, Thorpe dressed in Elizabethan costume and sat down with a man wearing a King Charles mask as part of a protest against his coronation.
In February 2023, Thorpe was roved from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade after she lay down in front of a float to protest against the presence of police.
The following month, she protested against an anti-transgender rights rally, which included British activist Kellie-Jay Keen, outside Parliament House.
Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe staged a protest against King Charles after his speech at Parliament House in Canberra.
Ross McGuinness
Mon 21 October 2024
The Australian senator who shouted "You are not my king" at King Charles has shared a cartoon image of the monarch in which he is beheaded.
Charles was heckled on Monday by Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal independent senator who is a fierce campaigner for Indigenous people's rights and has a history of criticising the monarchy.
Hours after her verbal attack on the King, Thorpe posted a cartoon on her Instagram stories that shows him after being beheaded.
The image had been shared on Instagram by its creator, artist Matt Chun, who posted it alongside a quote from Thorpe's message to the King earlier in the day. The cartoon shows the King's head outside his crown, under Thorpe's statement, "You are not our king."
At the end of a speech delivered by Charles at Australia's Parliament House in the capital Canberra, Thorpe launched a verbal attack on him, claiming "genocide" had been committed against "our people", and demanded a treaty between Australia's First Nations and its government.
The independent senator from Victoria shouted: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe, centre, stages a protest against King Charles at Parliament House, Canberra, Australia. (Reuters)
“Give us a treaty – we want a treaty with this country. This is not your land, you are not my king, you are not our king.”
Charles had just left the lectern after his speech to rejoin Queen Camilla when Thorpe started shouting - her verbal attack lasted for about one minute before she was led from the room by security.
Afterwards, Thorpe told the BBC: “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.
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe is led away by security after protesting against King Charles at Parliament House in Canberra. (Reuters)
King Charles during a reception at Parliament House, Canberra, Australia, which was interrupted by a protesting senator. (Reuters)
“We have been demanding a treaty for decades and decades. There is a sophisticated genocide going on against my people. We have… almost 24,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children that have been taken from their families.”
Following the incident, Thorpe posted on X, formerly Twitter: "Not my King. Treaty now."
In his speech, Charles had spoken of the debt he owed to Australia’s Indigenous people.
He said: “Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations peoples have done me the great honour of sharing, so generously, their stories and cultures. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom.”
Who is Lidia Thorpe?
The 51-year-old politician has a long history of activism, protest and defending the rights of Australia's Indigenous people, as well as publicly criticising the monarchy.
She has been the senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state.
Thorpe had been a member of the Greens and was the party's deputy leader in the Senate but quit her position after revelations she had a relationship with Dean Martin, the former head of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, while she was serving on the parliament's law enforcement committee.
Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe is known for her political activism. (Getty Images)
She left the party entirely to sit as an independent senator in 2023 over its backing for the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, which she opposed, instead calling for a treaty process with the Aboriginal people.
Thorpe, an Aboriginal woman of Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara descent, was born in 1973 and grew up in Housing Commission flats in Collingwood, Melbourne, and became a single mother at the age of 17 - she has three children.
She was declared bankrupt in 2013 and said that it had resulted from domestic violence, and was discharged from bankruptcy in 2016.
In 2017, Thorpe won a by-election as a Greens party candidate to take her seat in the Victorian state parliament, the first Indigenous woman to do so.
Senator Lidia Thorpe during her swearing-in on 6 October 2020. (Getty Images)
Although she lost that seat a year later, she was preselected in 2020 to become a Greens senator in the federal parliament. She wore a traditional Aboriginal possum-skin cloak when being sworn in and raised her fist in a "Black power" salute.
In 2022, after being re-elected, Thorpe criticised the monarchy by referring to the then Queen as "the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" during her swearing-in ceremony. She was forced to take the oath again, removing her reference to "colonising".
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe during an 'abolish the monarchy' protest outside the British Consulate in Melbourne on 22 September 2022, a national day of mourning in Australia following Queen Elizabeth II's death. (Getty Images)
Lidia Thorpe with fake blood on her hands during a protest calling for the monarchy to be abolished. (Getty Images)
During an Australian national day of mourning following Elizabeth II's death in September of that year, Thorpe protested in an "abolish the monarchy" demonstration in Melbourne, in which she covered her hands in fake blood.
Thorpe said: "This is what today is about, the Crown has blood on their hands. Our people are still dying in this country every single day."
Senator Lidia Thorpe, left, and a man dressed as King Charles during a protest in Melbourne in May 2023 opposing his coronation. (Getty Images)
In May 2023, Thorpe dressed in Elizabethan costume and sat down with a man wearing a King Charles mask as part of a protest against his coronation.
In February 2023, Thorpe was roved from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade after she lay down in front of a float to protest against the presence of police.
The following month, she protested against an anti-transgender rights rally, which included British activist Kellie-Jay Keen, outside Parliament House.
Keir Starmer praises Charles after king was heckled in Australia
Aletha Adu
Political correspondent
Mon 21 October 2024
Mon 21 October 2024
King Charles is doing a “fantastic job”, particularly in the context of his “health challenges”, the prime minister has said after the royal was heckled by the Indigenous Australian senator Lidia Thorpe.
Charles had just finished addressing MPs and senators at Parliament House in Canberra, as part of his five-day tour of Australia with Camilla, when he was approached by Thorpe, who yelled: “This is not your country.”
After the launch of the public consultation on the future of the NHS on Monday, Keir Starmer was asked whether it was “disgraceful” that Australian politicians were “heckling the king”.
Starmer said: “Look, I think the king is doing a fantastic job, an incredible ambassador not just for our country, but across the Commonwealth.
“I think he’s doing a fantastic job, and 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.”
Charles has paused his cancer treatment, after his diagnosis in February, while he carries out his first tour as monarch to Australia, and his state visit to Samoa.
Starmer also praised the monarch as an “incredible ambassador” for the Commonwealth, and said he was looking forward to joining Charles in Samoa for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) summit.
Thorpe had shouted at Charles: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
“You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty in this country. You are a ‘genocidalist’.”
As Thorpe was ushered out from the hall, she added: “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.”
Thorpe later said in a statement: “The British crown committed heinous crimes against the First Peoples of this country.
“These crimes include war crimes, crimes against humanity and failure to prevent genocide. There has been no justice for these crimes. The crown must be held accountable.”
When asked if Britain was guilty of genocide in Australia, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said he would not be drawn on comments made in relation to royal matters. But he said Britain’s relationship with Australia was “fantastic” and that it was a key ally.
But No 10 said Starmer remained opposed to apologising for the UK’s historical role in slavery, with the spokesperson noting talks around reparations are “not on the agenda” for the Chogm meeting.
“The position on apology remains the same,” they said. “We won’t be offering an apology at Chogm, but we will continue to engage with partners on the issues as we work with them to tackle the pressing challenges of today and indeed for the future generations.”
No comments:
Post a Comment