Why Australian senator Lidia Thorpe criticized King Charles

Lidia Thorpe is no stranger to controversy and this is not the first time she has expressed her views on the British monarchy.

The Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman has been a senator for Victoria since 2020, the first Aboriginal senator from that state.

Before that, she had a history of activism for Indigenous people – she also served as chair of Naidoc (the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) for the state of Victoria, an activist organization to recognize and teach Australians about their and Indigenous nations’ cultures. history.

In 2022, when she was sworn in in parliament after the re-election, she called the late Queen a colonialist.

“I Sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be loyal and I do be loyal to her colonizing majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said, while she was taking the oath.

After criticism from other senators, she repeated the oath as printed.

So Monday’s events won’t come as much of a surprise to those who follow Australian politics. Lidia Thorpe has made her point clear – that British settlement saw large numbers of indigenous people massacred and that the scars of the colonial period are still very clear to many people belong to Indigenous Nations in Australia.

Whether you agree with Lidia Thorpe’s approach or not, the reality is that there are deep disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians when it comes to many indicators including education, health and well-being. health and longevity.

Last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a young Indigenous person was more likely to go to prison than go to university, which was confirmed by statistics, as ABC pointed out.

And from 2020 to 2022, life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is estimated to be eight years shorter than indigenous Australians.

“I want to send a clear message to the King of England that he is not the King of this country, he is not my king, he is not sovereign,” Thorpe told the BBC. after being removed from the Great Hall following an argument. “To have sovereignty, you must belong to this land. He is not from this land.”

She continued.

“How can he stand there and say he is the King of our country – he has stolen so much wealth from our people and our land and he needs to pay it back . And he needs to have a conversation about a peace treaty in this country,” she said.

“We can lead it, we can do it – we can be a better country but we cannot bow to the colonialists whose ancestors he speaks of there responsible for mass murder, mass genocide.”

One of Lidia Thorpe’s biggest grievances is that Australia is the only Commonwealth country that has never signed a treaty with its indigenous people. She is promoting that as a priority.

For her, last year’s referendum on Voice to Parliament – a body made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that provides advice to parliament on Indigenous issues – was a distraction from what is important – a treaty.

Australians voted resoundingly against the proposal, and she was one of the few First Nations to also vote no.

At the time, she told the BBC that The Voice wanted “to assimilate us into the colonial constitution to turn us into little, nice, neat, indigenous Australians who will continue to be oppressed by the colonialists “.

But she is in the minority of First Nations people who do so. Areas with high proportions of Indigenous Australians overwhelmingly voted yes, but Aboriginal people make up just under 4% of the Australian population. Nationally, just over 60% of voters across Australia voted no.

Not all indigenous leaders appear confused by a royal visit as Lidia Thorpe.

Allira Davis, co-chair of the Uluru Youth Dialogue, said she respected the late Queen, even describing her as “beautiful”.

What about King Charles’s current visit?

“I don’t think it’s that important. We are our own country,” Allira Davis told the BBC, speaking before Lidia Thorpe questioned him in Canberra.

“Understanding the history of what happened in this country is really important. We are not just a white country anymore. We are a very brown country. We are a very multicultural country.

“So I absolutely support becoming a republic, but we need to address the recognition of our First Nations people.”

So although Lidia Thorpe reflects a view shared by many about the damage that colonization has caused – and still causes – not everyone agrees with her approach.

Local media reported that former colleagues found it difficult to work with her.

But Lidia Thorpe – who is now an independent after leaving the Green Party because she supported the party voting Yes in the referendum – is unlikely to change tack. She believes the King needs to play a larger role in addressing the evils of the past.