King Charles III has been heckled and accused of being responsible for “genocide” by an Indigenous senator in the Australian Parliament.
Charles and Queen Camilla have been in Australia on their first tour since he became the country’s king when Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022. The British monarch is head of state in 14 countries outside Britain, which are known as Commonwealth Realms.
Senator Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of Parliament after shouting: “You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back.
“Give us what you stole from us. Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land.
“Give us our treaties. We want a treaty in this country. You are a genocidalist. This is not your land, this is not your land.”
“You are not my king,” she added. “You are not our king, this is not your land.”
The king had just finished giving a speech form a lectern at the Australian Parliament and had returned to his seat alongside Queen Camilla when Thorpe began her protest, dressed in a traditional possum skin cloak.
She later told the BBC she was campaigning for a treaty between Indigenous people and the Australian government, with the country being the only former British colony not to have one.
She said: “To be sovereign you have to be of the land. He is not of this land.”
Charles’ visit was always likely to be a more bumpy ride than most after premiers from every Australian state snubbed a welcome reception, turning down their invitations before he had even got on the plane.
Toby Melville-Pool/Getty Images and Lukas Coch-Pool/Getty Images
And the Australian Republican Movement [ARM] has been using it to campaign for the country to break ties with the British monarchy, billing it as a “farewell tour.”
Aunty Serena Williams, an elder of the Ngunnawal people, performed a “Welcome to Country” ceremony for Charles but told Sky News she was hoping for an apology from the king for colonialism.
“We all have roles and responsibilities, and I have roles and responsibilities to my people. And I think an apology would be beautiful,” she said. “We have to acknowledge our past.”
Charles acknowledged the ceremony in his speech to Parliament but did not say sorry, in keeping with longstanding British foreign policy on the subject.
He did say though that he appreciated Williams’ gesture which allowed him “to pay my respects to the traditional owners of the land on which we meet.”
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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