King Charles was brusquely interrupted as he finished an address at Australia’s Parliament House.
“You are not my king!”, shouted independent senator Lidia Thorpe. She was quickly escorted away by security.
After making claims of genocide against “our people”, she could be heard yelling: “This is not your land, you are not my King.”
Lidia Thorpe, wearing traditional clothing, strode up the aisle yelling: “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!”, she screamed.
Australia is a Commonwealth country where the King serves as the head of state.
Thorpe, the first Aboriginal Australian woman to serve as a senator in Victoria, has long advocated for a treaty between Australia’s government and its first inhabitants.
Australia is the only ex-British colony without one, and many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people stress that they never ceded their sovereignty or land to the Crown.
For decades, Australia has debated whether to break from the monarchy and become a republic. In 1999 the question was put to the public in a referendum – which is the only way to change the nation’s constitution – and resoundingly defeated.
Upon Charles’ arrival in Aunty Serena Williams from the Ngunnawal people performed a “Welcome to Country” and smoking ceremony.
“We all have roles and responsibilities, and I have roles and responsibilities to my people. And I think an apology would be beautiful”, she said.
During his address in parliament, the King referenced to the ceremony and said that he wanted to “to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet”.
“In my many visits to Australia I witnessed the courage and hope that have guided the nation’s long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation”, he admitted – leaving it at that.
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