Indigenous leaders criticise Australian senator for harassing King Charles

Indigenous groups have taken issue with an Australian senator who heckled King Charles, claiming that she provoked the response by momentarily posting a violent picture of the king on social media.
The shouts “you are not my king” and “this is not your land” that Aboriginal lady Lidia Thorpe let out as she was led away from a royal function in Canberra on Monday garnered international attention.

While some campaigners have commended the independent senator for her bravery, some well-known Aboriginal Australians have called her demonstration “embarrassing” and “disrespectful.”
Thorpe has stood by what she did during the event, but she has acknowledged that a cartoon that was subsequently uploaded on her Instagram account was offensive.

The senator said that a staff worker circulated the design, which showed the King decapitated next to his crown, without her knowledge.

“I removed it as soon as I saw it. I would never knowingly spread anything that can be seen as inciting violence against someone.”

The picture, which has sparked criticism, intensifies the close examination of her Monday activities.
The Aboriginal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan told the Guardian Australia that “Lidia Thorpe does not speak for me and my people, and I’m sure she doesn’t speak for a lot of First Nations people.” Aunty Violet Sheridan officially welcomed King and Queen Camilla to Ngunnawal territory.

Thorpe’s actions were deemed “embarrassing and disappointing” by longtime republican Nova Peris, a former senator and the first Aboriginal woman to serve in parliament.

“Australia is moving forward in its journey of reconciliation… as hard as that journey is, it requires respectful dialogue, mutual understanding, and a shared commitment to healing – not divisive actions that draw attention away from the progress we are making as a country,” she said in a post on X.
Thorpe’s stance has been praised by other well-known Indigenous activists, however.

Given its history, Bundjalung lawyer and author Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts said there was “nothing more harmful or disrespectful” than permitting the monarchy to tour the nation in the first place.
“When Thorpe speaks, she’s got the ancestors right with her.”

Speaking on Tuesday, Thorpe said that after being denied many written requests for a meeting and a “respectful conversation” with the monarch, she had torn down the King’s parliamentary welcoming ceremony.

She said that she “wanted the world to know the plight of our people in this country” and that she expected an apology from King to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Why doesn’t he say, ‘I am sorry for the many, many thousands of massacres that happened in this country and that my ancestors and my kingdom are responsible for that’?” she said.

Her protest has been criticized by a number of Australian politicians, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has backed the monarchy.

Reporters questioned Sir Keir whether he thought it was “disgraceful” for Australian MPs to yell at the King. He said, “Look, I think the King is doing a fantastic job, an incredible ambassador, not just for our country, but across the Commonwealth.”

“He is out there doing his public service notwithstanding the health challenges he himself has had.”
The head of the opposition, Peter Dutton, demanded that Thorpe step down, while Albanese said that Thorpe had not shown “the standard behaviour Australians rightly expect of parliamentarians.”

To which Thorpe replied, “I really don’t care what Dutton says,” on ABC radio.
“I’ll be here for the next three years so get used to truth-telling.”