“F**k the colony,” independent Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted at the British monarch in the Parliament House in Canberra
A reception of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in the Parliament House in Canberra has been interrupted by an obscene rant from an indigenous Australian lawmaker.
After the British monarch finished his address to the gathering on Monday, independent Senator Lidia Thorpe stepped forward and confronted him.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us back what you stole from us: Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land,” she shouted.
The lawmaker, who was wearing a native fur cloak, demanded that a treaty be agreed with First Nations peoples. Australia remains one the few countries in the British Commonwealth that has not signed an agreement between the state and the indigenous peoples. “Give us a treaty, we want a treaty in this country,” she said.
“This is not your land, you are not my king” and “f**k the colony,” Thorpe shouted while being escorted out of the hall by security.
King Charles protester Lidia Thorpe, a Victoria Senator interrupts the great hall after speech pic.twitter.com/d02hoKW1rh
Earlier in the day, Thorpe, an advocate for indigenous sovereignty, took part in a protest outside the Australian War Memorial, which was visited by the royals. The lawmaker reportedly had a brief altercation with police and barely avoided arrest.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the royal couple that the people in the country have great respect for them. “Your majesties are very welcome here,” he said.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott accused Thorpe of engaging in “unfortunate political exhibitionism,” according to SBS News.
According to the Australian Museum, there were at least 270 massacres carried out by the colonists against Aboriginal Australians between the late 18th and early 20th century “as part of a state-sanctioned and organised attempts to eradicate First Nations people.” Due to those actions, the indigenous population in Australia reduced from an estimated 1-1.5 million to less than 100,000 by the early 1900s, it said.
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