October 22, (THEWILL) – An Independent Australian lawmaker, Senator Lidia Thorpe, has accused Britain’s King Charles III of complicity in a colonial-era genocide of Australia’s Indigenous people.
Shouting from the back seat shortly after the monarch delivered a speech to Australian lawmakers at Parliament House in Canberra, Senator Thorpe, a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights, approached the king and shouted: “This is not your country.
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
“You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty in this country. You are a genocidalist. This is not your land. You are not my king. You are not our king”, Thorpe yelled at Charles III, even as security personnel ushered her out.
Speaking with newsmen outside the Parliament, Thorpe said she protested to highlight Australia’s poor record on Indigenous deaths in custody, child removals and the need for a treaty.
“The truth is, this colony is built on stolen land, stolen wealth and stolen lives”, she said
The rage over King Charles’s visit is not unconnected to the British invasion of Australia in the late 18th century.
According to research by the University of Newcastle in Australia, thousands of Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by British troops and later by government forces acting on instructions from the crown, in a deliberate effort to eradicate all resistance to colonisation.
While many in Australia have welcomed Charles’ visit, which is only the second ever by a reigning British monarch, others have called for it to be the last.
The Australian Republic Movement, a campaign group that advocates for an Australian to replace the British monarch as the country’s official head of state, has mocked the royal visit as something akin to an ageing music group’s final tour. The group launched a campaign last week calling on Australians to, “Wave Goodbye to Royal Reign with Monarchy: The Farewell Oz Tour!”
“We say to Charles and Camilla: ‘Welcome, we hope you’re enjoying our country and good health and good spirits.’ But we also look forward to this being the final tour of a sitting Australian monarch”, said ARM co-chair, Esther.
“It is a fact that the British committed genocide here. It is a fact that their racist legacy lives on in Australia today and that should absolutely be resisted and confronted”, deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, said.
