Sydney, Australia, Oct 21 (EFE).- Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe stormed into Australian parliament at the end of King Charles’ speech on Monday and heckled him to protest the rights of the country’s indigenous people, dispossessed of their lands after the arrival of the British in 1770.
Britain’s King Charles III (2-R) and Queen Camilla (2-L) attend a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, 21 October 2024. EFE/EPA/LUKAS COCH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT
“Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” Thorpe said at the end of the speech in Canberra by Charles, Australia’s head of state as part of the British Commonwealth.
Canberra (Australia), 20/10/2024.- Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe (C) disrupts proceedings as Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Jaydon at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, 21 October 2024. King Charles III and Queen Camilla are visiting Australia from 18 October to 23 October. (Reino Unido) EFE/EPA/LUKAS COCH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT
“You are not our king,” she said, adding that the British committed genocide against the indigenous people of Australia, as well as the plundering of “bones, skulls” and the theft of indigenous babies, before being forced to leave the room.
Thorpe, dressed in a traditional kangaroo skin, had also previously turned her back as “God Save the King” was sung in parliament in protest against the visit of Charles III and Queen Camilla, who on Friday started their tour of Australia and Samoa scheduled to run until Saturday.
Thorpe’s intervention came shortly after Charles III gave a speech to hundreds of attendees, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in which he spoke of the “long and sometimes difficult road to reconciliation” with indigenous people.
Australia is the only country in the commonwealth that does not have a treaty with its indigenous population, nor does it recognize them in the constitution in force since 1901, when the former colony became a federated state.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – who are of Melanesian origin and inhabit an island territory in the northeast of Australia – are a group that represents 3.8 percent of the more than 27 million inhabitants of Australia.
They populated what is now known as Australia 65,000 years ago, until the British Crown declared this territory uninhabited at the end of the 18th century and used the concept of “Terra Nulis,” or No Man’s Land, to claim possession of it.
The indigenous people have since been victims of discrimination and reported abuse, as well as having been dispossessed of their lands.
While there has been some progress in recognizing customary rights, there is still conflict, including the “Stolen Generation,” which includes some 100,000 Aboriginal children separated from their families between 1910 and 1970 and given to white families or institutions for education.
Added to this is the failure of a referendum held last year to create a body that would give indigenous people a voice in parliament, among other problems of social and economic inequality. EFE
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