King Charles III faced some pushback from an Australian lawmaker in the crowd.
After Charles, 75, concluded his address to Parliament during his royal visit to Canberra on Monday, October 21, Senator Lidia Thorpe made her voice heard. Thorpe, 51, declared her desire for a treaty between British colonizers and Native Australians, according to a video shared by CNN.
“Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” she shouted. “You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”
As Thorpe yelled at the monarch, she was escorted out of the building by security officers.
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“This is not your land,” she called out. “You are not my King, you are not our King.”
While Thorpe was removed from the vicinity, Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
During his speech, Charles highlighted meeting Australia’s First Nations people, who lived on the land long before British settlers arrived.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations people have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures,” Charles told the crowd. “I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom.”
When Charles and wife Queen Camilla first arrived at Parliament, the couple participated in a traditional Aboriginal welcoming ceremony.
Thorpe, for her part, is a proud DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman who represents her state of Victoria. She made history in 2020 by becoming the first Aboriginal senator from the state. Since becoming a political figure, Thorpe has been vocal about Indigenous activism.
Following her re-election in 2022, Thorpe made headlines after she called the late Queen Elizabeth II a “colonizer” while being sworn into office.
“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing her majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said.
After her protest on Monday, Thorpe defended her actions to the BBC.
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“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,” she said. “To be sovereign you have to be of this land. He’s not of this land.”
She continued: “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.”
However, not all leaders agreed with Thorpe’s outburst. According to the British outlet, Aboriginal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan, who was present for Charles and Camilla’s arrival called the protest “disrespectful” and added that Thorpe “does not speak for me.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Buckingham Palace.
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