Last week, Buckingham Palace told reporters that King Charles and Queen Camilla intended “to celebrate the best of Australia” during their five-day visit to the country, which included classic stops at the Sydney Opera House and barbecue at Parramatta Park. But on Monday, a parliamentary reception in Canberra foregrounded the country’s ongoing discussion about Indigenous rights and the legacy of colonialism when Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal senator for Victoria, interrupted the event, wearing a traditional possum-skin cloak.
“You are not our king! You are not sovereign. You committed genocide against our people,” she yelled from the audience after Charles took his seat onstage. “Give us what you stole from us—our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.” She continued to yell as she was escorted from the event.
Thorpe, the first Indigenous senator to represent Victoria, the state on Australia’s southeastern coast, previously made headlines for her opposition to monarchy in August 2022. While taking her oath of office, she declared her allegiance to “the colonizing” Queen Elizabeth II and ultimately had to repeat the oath. Friends of the king told The Times that the Palace was not “blindsided” by the outburst and that were aware of Thorpe’s reputation and her presence on Monday’s guest list.
On Wednesday, Thorpe continued her criticism in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “I’m sorry, Charlie, but you can’t come here and think you can say a few nice words about our people while you still have stolen goods,” she said. “You are in receipt of stolen goods, which makes you complicit in theft.”
The trip marks the king’s first overseas tour since announcing a cancer diagnosis in February. Though royal insiders were reportedly concerned about the risks the trip might pose to the king’s health, the king’s courtiers also took increased antimonarchy sentiment in the country into account when making their plans for the visit.
Earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported on an exchange of letters between the monarch’s assistant private secretary and representatives of the Australian Republican Movement. “Please be assured that your views on this matter have been noted very carefully,” wrote Nathan Ross, a former New Zealand deputy high commissioner who has served at the palace since 2023. “His Majesty, as a constitutional monarch, acts on the advice of his ministers and whether Australia becomes a republic is, therefore, a matter for the Australian public to decide.”
On Wednesday morning, the king and queen continued their tour by traveling to Samoa, where they were greeted with a red-carpet welcome. The trip coincides with the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where leaders from across the 56 affiliated nations meet to make progress on common problems. This year, the king will preside over their discussion of climate change.
