‘Unfinished’: Why Thorpe heckled King

Lidia Thorpe says she made her vocal protest in King Charles’ face as a continued push toward a treaty.

Speaking to the National Indigenous Times in the hours after her protest, the independent senator says Australia’s head of state has historic wrongs to right.

“I wanted to send a clear message to King Coloniser to say that there’s unfinished business and we want our land back,” Ms Thorpe said.

“We want the bones back. How many of our old people been going overseas and trying to get our artefacts and our bones back.”

There are some 39,000 Indigenous artefacts held in 70 museums in the UK and Ireland.

Some items are being returned to Indigenous Australians, but the law governing the British Museum effectively outlaws items being returned to their original custodians the world over.

On Monday Ms Thorpe interrupted a parliamentary reception in Canberra for King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

“You are not our king, you are not our sovereign” “f**k the king”, she yelled at the Australian head of state.

“Give us our land rights,” the senator said.

“Give us what you stole from us … our babies, our people, you destroyed our land. It’s not your land, you are not our king.”

The King and the Prime Minister shared a word as Ms Thorpe was escorted out by security.

On Monday night, a cartoon depicting a decapitated King Charles was shared on the Victorian senator’s Instagram account. Ms Thorpe blamed a staff member for the post and deleted the image.

Ms Thorpe’s outburst in front of the King received criticism from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and outrage from royalists.

Ms Thorpe told National Indigenous Times she had a responsibility to her ancestors to resist the effects of colonisation.

“I can’t stand silent when there are injustices going on against our people,” Ms Thorpe said.

“Peace looks like a treaty and that’s what my old people are telling me.

“Blackfellas may not agree. But we don’t have to agree. Let’s go down the process of a treaty. Let’s work out what we want for our people, our families, our language groups and put that on the table,” she said.

Analysis of Indigenous Australians’ decisions on the Voice Referendum vary. Some analysis shows at polling booths with more than 50 per cent Indigenous Australians, 63 per cent voted yes.

Overwhelmingly, Indigenous remote booths voted 73 per cent yes.

Senator Thorpe did not support a Voice to Parliament, saying a Voice was the “easy way to fake progress” for First Nations people without making any changes.

She instead called for a treaty.

Queensland and Victoria have truth-telling inquiries as part of their respective paths to treaty.

But the senator’s protest at King Charles III on Monday drew condemnation from politicians.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Senator Thorpe’s outburst was self promotion.

“It was entirely predictable,” Mr Dutton told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“All about herself. It doesn’t advance any cause she’s interested in.”

He suggested that the crossbench senator should resign if she did not believe in the system of which she was part of.

“There is a strong argument that someone who doesn’t believe in the system and takes a quarter of a million dollars a year from the system should resign.”

The Australian Federal Police say there was no threat directed at Their Majesties and are not investigating.