King Charles is visiting Australia this week, where he retains the ceremonial title of head of state, though the country is no longer a British colony. While delivering a speech to Australia’s Parliament on Monday, though, he was interrupted by Lidia Thorpe, an Australian senator of Indigenous descent, who began shouting at and heckling the King. Keep reading for more information.
Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe yells at King Charles after he finished giving a speech at the Australian Parliament:
“You committed genocide against our people, give us our land back! Give us what you stole from us! You are not our King!”
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Australian Senator Interrupts Ceremony; Shouts At The King
Cutting King Charles off mid-sentence, Thorpe shouted, “You are not our king! Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us.” Security guards then swiftly escorted Thorpe out of the chamber, though she did react with resistance, and continued to heckle the king. The 51-year-old was demanding that Britain enter a treaty with Australia’s Indigenous population while also accusing British colonizers of genocide.
As she left the room, she could be heard shouting, “Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people! You destroyed our land!” King Charles, who stood alongside his wife, Queen Camilla, did not react, and left the stage a few minutes later without addressing the situation.
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Australian Senator Calls For A Treaty
So what's this all about? Senator Thorpe is one of many in Australia who have advocated for a treaty between the Australian government and the indigenous people that resided there long before British citizens colonized the land. In other former British colonies like New Zealand, a treaty was established between the Indigenous peoples and the government, though this never happened in Australia. Thorpe was calling on the King to instruct the Parliament to discuss such a thing.
"We can lead that, we can do that, we can be a better country - but we cannot bow to the colonizer, whose ancestors he spoke about in there are responsible for mass murder and mass genocide," she said after the fact to BBC.
However, Aboriginal elder Aunty Violent Sheridan, called Thorpe's display "disrespectful" and clarified, "She does not speak for me."
