The King has been berated by an Australian senator who accused the monarchy of “genocide” against her nation’s indigenous people and declared: “You are not my king”.
Lidia Thorpe, who campaigns on First Nations issues, disrupted Charles’s welcome to the capital Canberra with her outburst which overshadowed a speech by the King highlighting his debt to the descendants of Australia’s first inhabitants.
Charles and Camilla have faced low-key demonstrations during their tour of Australia, which began on Monday, from supporters of First Nations resistance to colonisation, who have been displaying a banner with the word “decolonise” at a number of events.
But the protest from the elected representative is likely to be seen as an embarrassment for Charles, who is making his first visit to Australia as King.
After the King spoke to guests at Parliament House, Ms Thorpe, who wore a possum skin coat and carried a traditional message stick, shouted: “You are not our King, you are not sovereign … you have committed genocide against our people.
“Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us … Our babies, our people. You destroyed our land.”
It is understood the King was unruffled and did not let the outburst overshadow what the royal party viewed as a positive day in the Australian capital.
Aunty Violet Sheridan, a senior Ngunnawal Elder who formally welcomed Charles and Camilla to her ancestral lands when they entered Parliament House, said the senator did not speak for her.
“He is our king, our sovereign and he has got cancer.”
Charles and Camilla were earlier welcomed at Canberra airport with a traditional smoking ceremony where guests wafted burning eucalyptus over themselves, chosen for its health benefits in light of the King’s ongoing cancer treatment.
The royal couple commemorated Australia’s war dead at the national memorial, laying floral tributes as hundreds of well-wishers turned out to see the couple – including an alpaca who sneezed in front of the King.
“He is not my king. He is not sovereign. We are sovereign. To be sovereign, you have to be of the land. He is not of this land.”
In a statement before her outburst the senator criticised Mr Albanese, claiming his government had backed down on a treaty with Australia’s First Nations.
Mr Albanese has a long-term aim of steering Australia towards a becoming a republic but the plans are on hold after Australians overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to indigenous people in a referendum held last year.
In a speech before Charles’s address, the prime minister said to Charles: “You have shown great respect for Australians even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown.
“Nothing stands still.”
