On October 21, King Charles III visited the Australian Parliament to deliver a speech, but his address was interrupted by Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe. She shouted at him, “You are not my king,” for about a minute, causing a disruption during the ceremony held in Canberra. Security personnel escorted her out shortly afterward.
According to a report by the BBC, Thorpe accused European colonizers of committing “genocide” against Australia’s Indigenous peoples, insisting, “This is not your land; you are not my king.”
However, an earlier welcoming ceremony for the royal couple featured Indigenous elder Aunty Violet Sheridan, who described Thorpe’s protest as “disrespectful” and clarified that “she does not speak for me.”
In an interview with the BBC later, Thorpe explained that she aimed to convey a “clear message” to King Charles. She stated, “To be the ruler of this land, you must belong to this land. He does not belong to this land.”
Thorpe urged the king to instruct Parliament and Indigenous leaders to engage in discussions about a peace treaty. She emphasized, “We can lead this; we can accomplish this; we can be a better country. But we cannot bow down to colonizers. The ancestors King Charles mentions are responsible for mass killings and genocide.”
Australia became a British colony over a century ago, during which thousands of Indigenous people were killed and many displaced. Although Australia was declared a “de facto independent nation” in 1901, it continues to recognize the British monarch as the head of state.
According to additional reports, on the same day, the king and queen visited the Australian War Memorial and paid their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier, marking their first visit to this city in nearly a decade.
In Sydney on October 22, King Charles and Queen Camilla continued their Australian tour before heading to Samoa for a British Commonwealth meeting. It’s worth noting that Charles had attended a school in Australia for six months as a teenager in 1966. This trip marks his first significant international engagement since being diagnosed with cancer in February.
