On October 21, during King Charles III’s visit to the Australian Parliament, he was confronted by Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe, who shouted directly at him, “You are not my king.” Thorpe’s protest, which lasted about a minute, interrupted the ceremony taking place in Canberra, and she was subsequently escorted out by security.
According to a report by the BBC, Thorpe accused European colonizers of committing “genocide” against Indigenous Australians, shouting, “This is not your land, you are not my king.”
However, earlier that day, an Indigenous elder, Aunty Violet Sheridan, who welcomed King Charles and his wife, criticized Thorpe’s protest as “disrespectful,” asserting, “She does not speak for me.”
Later, Thorpe elaborated to the BBC, expressing her intention to deliver a “clear message” to King Charles III. She stated, “To be the ruler of this land, you must belong to this land. He does not belong to this land.”
Thorpe emphasized the necessity for the King to direct Parliament and Indigenous representatives to engage in discussions about a peace treaty, saying, “We can lead this, we can do this, we can be a better country. But we cannot bow to colonizers. The ancestors that Charles mentioned are responsible for mass murder and genocide.”
Australia became a British colony over a century ago, during which thousands of Indigenous people were killed, and many were displaced. Although Australia was declared a “de facto independent nation” in 1901, it still recognizes the British monarch as head of state.
In addition, according to Central News Agency reports, the King and Queen Consort visited the Australian War Memorial on the same day, paying their respects by laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier. This marked their first visit to the city in nearly a decade.
Continuing their Australian tour, Charles and Camilla are set to visit Sydney on October 22 before heading to Samoa for a British Commonwealth meeting.
Interestingly, Charles had previously attended school in Australia for six months as a teenager in 1966. This trip marks his first significant foreign visit since being diagnosed with cancer in February.
