Australian senator rejects British King Charles, calls him ‘genocide perpetrator’

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe, an outspoken advocate for Aboriginal rights, interrupted a ceremony at Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra, where King Charles III was speaking, to accuse the monarch of being a “genocide perpetrator.”

During the event, Thorpe, who has been critical of the British monarchy’s colonial history, shouted for about a minute, claiming that King Charles “is not of this land.”

She added, “This is not your land, you are not my King,” while making allegations of genocide against Indigenous Australians. Security eventually led Thorpe away from the gathering.

Thorpe’s protest sparked mixed reactions. Aboriginal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan, who had earlier welcomed the King and Queen, described Thorpe’s actions as “disrespectful” and stated, “She does not speak for me.” Despite the disruption, the royal couple continued the event, meeting crowds outside without addressing the protest.

Following the incident, Thorpe told the BBC that her goal was to send a “clear message” to King Charles regarding Australia’s colonial past and Indigenous issues.

“To be sovereign, you have to be of the land, he is not of this land,” she said.

Thorpe, an independent senator from Victoria, is one of the people who has pushed for a treaty between Australia’s government and its original inhabitants.

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In contrast to New Zealand and other former British colonies, Australia never established a treaty with its Indigenous peoples. Many Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people emphasise that they never gave the Crown their land or sovereignty.

She urged the King to give Parliament instructions to negotiate a peace agreement with the indigenous peoples.

“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 and mass genocide.”

Australia’s past with its Indigenous peoples was always going to be discussed during the royal visit to Canberra, but Thorpe’s intervention forced the King and Queen to confront it more head-on than they had originally intended.

A receiving line of politicians, schoolchildren, and Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Serena Williams, an Indigenous elder, welcomed the King and Queen when they arrived in Canberra earlier in the day.

To the tune of a didgeridoo, they were formally welcomed into Canberra’s Parliament House’s Great Hall.

The King discussed indigenous groups and the lessons he had learned from them, stating that his personal experience had been “shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom”.

“In my many visits to Australia, I have witnessed the courage and hope that have guided the nation’s long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation,” he said.

However, Thorpe’s outcry echoed through the hall as he sat down.

She said: “The King’s not well. He’s going through chemo, and he didn’t need this.

“I surely appreciate him visiting here. It may be the last time he comes. Heaps of people share my thoughts.”

(BBC)