“Give us back what you stole from us,” an Australian senator shouts at King Charles.

CANBERRA, Australia – An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land when the British royal visited Australia’s Parliament on Monday.

Senator Lydia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after she shouted that British colonizers had taken the land and bones of Indigenous people.

“You committed genocide against our people,” she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our children, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a contract. We want an agreement.”

No treaty was ever concluded between the British colonialists and the indigenous peoples of Australia.

Charles spoke quietly to Albanese while security personnel prevented Thorpe from approaching.

“This is not your land. “You are not my king,” Thorpe shouted as she was led out of the hall.

Thorpe is known for loud protests. When she was confirmed as a senator in 2022, she was not allowed to refer to the then-monarch as “colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” Last year she briefly blocked a police platform at Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Madri Gras by lying in the street in front of it. Last year she was also banned for life from a Melbourne strip club after a video emerged of her abusing male patrons.

Albanese, who wants the country to become a republic with an Australian head of state, made oblique reference to the issue in his speech welcoming the monarch.

“You showed great respect for Australians even as we debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown,” Albanese said. But, he said, “nothing stands still.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who wants to keep Britain’s king as Australia’s monarch, said many republic supporters were honored to attend a reception for Charles and Queen Camilla at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.

“People got their hair cut, people got their shoes shined, people got their suits ironed, and that’s just the Republicans,” Dutton joked.

But six Australian state governments expressed their support for the Australian head of state by declining invitations to the reception. Each said they had more pressing matters to attend to on Monday, but monarchists agreed the royal family had been treated with disdain.

At the start of his speech, Charles thanked Canberra Indigenous elder Aunt Violet Sheridan for her traditional welcome to the King and Queen.

“Let me also say how deeply I appreciate the moving Welcome to Country ceremony this morning, which gives me the opportunity to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people and all the First Nations people who have loved and cared for this continent for 65,000 years,” Charles said.

“Throughout my life, Australia’s Indigenous peoples have been a great honor to me in sharing their history and culture so generously. I can only say how much my own experience has been shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom,” Charles added.

In a 1999 referendum, Australians decided to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Many believe that this result was a consequence of disagreements over how the president would be chosen, rather than majority support for the monarch.

Albanese has ruled out holding another referendum on the issue during his current three-year term in government. But this is possible if his centre-left Labor Party is re-elected in elections next May.

Charles had been involved in debates about a republic in Australia for several months before his visit.

The Australian republican movement, which wants Australia to sever its constitutional ties to Britain, wrote to Charles last December asking for a meeting in Australia and for the king to champion their cause. Buckingham Palace politely wrote back in March that the decision on the king’s meetings would be made by the Australian government. The meeting with ARM is not included in the official itinerary.

“Whether Australia will become a republic… is a question for the Australian public to decide,” the Buckingham Palace letter said.

Earlier on Monday, Charles and Camilla laid wreaths at the Australian War Memorial before shaking hands with well-wishers on the second full day of their visit.

The memorial estimates that 4,000 people came to see the couple.

Charles, 75, is being treated for cancer, which has led to the route being shortened. This is Charles’ 17th trip to Australia and his first since becoming king in 2022. This is the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch since his late mother Queen Elizabeth II visited the distant country in 2011.

Charles and Camilla relaxed the day after arriving late on Friday before making their first public appearance during the trip for a church service in Sydney on Sunday. They then flew to Canberra where they visited the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier and a reception at Parliament House.

Before leaving the war memorial, they stopped to greet hundreds of people gathered under clear skies under Australian flags. Temperatures were forecast to reach a moderate high of 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit).

Charles will travel to Samoa on Wednesday to open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Copyright: NPR 2024