Britain’s King Charles III attends a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Monday. Photo by Lukas Coch/EPA-EFE
Oct. 21 (UPI) — An Indigenous Australian senator heckled King Charles III after his address to the Australian Parliament House on Monday, yelling, “You are not my king,” to the monarch.
Lidia Thorpe, an independent Aboriginal lawmaker, was escorted away from King Charles by security when she screamed her objection to him shortly after his speech, charging “genocide” against Australia’s Indigenous population.
“You committed genocide against our people,” Thorpe said in range of King Charles, according to The Guardian.” 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.”
Thorpe, who represents Victoria, has called a treaty between the Australian governing body and the Aboriginal population for years, arguing that they never ceded their land or sovereignty to Britain. Australia is the only former British colony that does not have such a treaty.
Aunty Violet Sheridan, an Aboriginal elder who was part of a welcoming group for King Charles and Queen Camilla, reacted to Thorpe’s statements, calling her protest “disrespectful.”
“She does not speak for me,” Sheridan said, according to BBC News.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton showed a more united front at the Parliament House, thanking the royal couple for their visit.
“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times where we’ve debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown,” Albanese said. “Nothing stands still.”
