Newsman: An Indigenous senator in Australia’s Parliament House yelled at Britain’s King Charles III “You are not my king.” King Charles III had just finished giving a speech to Australia’s Parliament House on Monday when the senator began yelling at him.
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted at the royal couple from the back of the room, “Give us our land back, and give us what you stole.” Security officers moved to escort her away.
King Charles, during his speech acknowledged Australia’s First Nations people, who lived on the land for tens of thousands of years before the arrival of British settlers over 230 years ago.
“Throughout my life, Australia’s First Nations people have done me the great honor of sharing so generously their stories and cultures,” King Charles said.
“I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom.”
Earlier, a traditional Aboriginal welcoming ceremony was held outside Parliament House for the royal couple, but for many of the country’s Indigenous population, they are not welcome.
The arrival of British settlers to Australia led to the massacre of Indigenous people at hundreds of locations around the country until as recently as the 1930s. Their ancestors still suffer from racism and systemic discrimination in a country that has failed to reverse centuries of disadvantage.
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On Monday, protesters stood with an Aboriginal flag as the royal couple visited the Australian War Memorial. A 62-year-old man was arrested for failing to comply with a police direction.
Before she yelled at the King, Thorpe turned her back during a recital of “God Save the King,” Australian media reported. Images showed her wearing a possum-fur coat, standing in the opposite direction of other attendees.
King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived in Sydney on Friday, part of the monarch’s first tour to a Commonwealth realm since acceding the throne.
It’s the King’s first long-haul multi-country trip since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year, and his schedule is said to have been lightened on medical advice.
The royal couple’s next stop will be Sydney on Tuesday for a public reception outside the Opera House before they fly to Samoa for the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the king’s first as head of the organization.
