King Charles and Queen Camilla are currently embarking on a royal tour of Australia and Samoa.
Australia is a constitutional monarchy; King Charles is the monarch but he has limited powers within the country. While members of the general public have reportedly welcomed the King and Queen, the royals have faced resistance from anti-monarchists throughout the country.
On Monday, October 21, King Charles made a speech to the Australian Parliament in Canberra, but he was interrupted. Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe could be heard shouting at the monarch from the back of the hall, before being escorted out.
"You are not our king," Thorpe said, via The New York Times. "Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us." Thorpe also asked that the United Kingdom enter a treaty with Australia’s Indigenous population, while referencing past abuses and colonial genocide.
"Our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people," Thorpe exclaimed. "You destroyed our land."
King Charles reportedly didn't show much reaction to the criticism he received from Thorpe, The New York Times reported. While Thorpe was quickly escorted from the venue, Charles and Camilla left soon after, too.
Meanwhile, a palace source told People that Charles and Camilla are "deeply grateful to the very many thousands who turned out to support them, and are only sorry they didn’t have a chance to stop and talk to every single one. The warmth and scale of the reception was truly awesome."
In contrast to Thorpe's opinion, Nova Peris OAM OLY posted on X, "As a former Senator and the first Aboriginal woman in the Australian Parliament, I am deeply disappointed by the actions of Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe during King Charles III’s visit to Parliament House."
Peris continued, "Her outburst, which disrupted what should have been a respectful event, was both embarrassing and disrespectful to our nation and the Royal Family."
