Britain’s King Charles III had just finished giving a speech to Australia’s Parliament House on Monday when an Indigenous senator began yelling, “You are not my king.”
From the back of the room, Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted at the royal couple, “Give us our land back, give us what you stole,” as security officers moved to escort her away.
The interjection came as King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the Australian capital Canberra to meet the nation’s leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
During his speech, King Charles 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.
Thorpe, a DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, has long campaigned for a treaty and has previously voiced her fierce objections to the British monarchy.
Australian’s Indigenous people never ceded sovereignty and have never engaged in a treaty process with the British Crown. Australia remains a Commonwealth country with the King as its Head of State.
During her swearing-in ceremony in 2022, Thorpe referred to Australia’s then-Head of State as “the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” and was asked to take the oath again.
She did so while raising one fist in the air.
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.
The Greens party said in a statement that the King’s presence was “a momentous occasion for some” but also a “visual reminder of the ongoing colonial trauma and legacies of British colonialism” for many First Nations people.
In the statement, Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, a Yamatji Noongar woman, called for the King to be clear in his recognition and support of “First Nations justice, truth telling and healing.”
“He now needs to be on the right side of history,” she added.
The Australian Monarchist League demanded Thorpe’s resignation after what it called a “childish demonstration.”
Royal supporters and a sneezing alpaca
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.
However, Monday’s outing was a blur of activity that began with a meet and greet with supporters, many waving Australian flags.
Among them was an alpaca by the name of Hephner, who caught the King’s eye and immediately sneezed on him.
Royal fan Chloe Pailthorpe, 44, said she was excited about the royal tour and had been writing to the royal household since age 10.
“We just love what the royals do and how they impact local communities, and support what we do with volunteering, and just community service work,” she told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
A 21-gun salute heralded the King’s arrival at Parliament House, and in his speech, Albanese commended the royal couple for their charitable work.
He also commented on the King’s early appreciation of the “the grave reality of climate change” and the necessity for humans to “take meaningful and effective action against it.”
To reflect his interest in the environment, the King was invited to plant trees at Parliament House and the Botanic Gardens.
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.