An Aboriginal Australian senator tore into Parliament an Act of Charles III: “Give us back our land”

Aboriginal senator Lydia Thorpe stormed the Australian Parliament this Monday at the end of King Charles III’s speech to protest the rights of the country’s indigenous people, who were evicted from their lands with the arrival of the British in 1770 . “Give us back our “land” (…) What have you stolen from our people,'” shouted independent senator Lydia Throop at the end of Australia’s head of state Charles III’s speech in the Parliament of Canberra, which is a monarchy with a parliamentary The system is governed by democracy.

The senator also taunted him: “You are not my king. You are not our king”, and condemned the “genocide” committed against Australia’s indigenous people, as well as the plundering of “bones, skulls” and the theft of indigenous babies, before being forced to leave the room.

“You have destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want treaty in this country. “You are a murderer,” he continued to shout.

Senator Thorpe, wearing traditional kangaroo skin, has previously turned his back on chants of ‘God save the King’ in Parliament in protest against the visit of Charles III and Queen Camilla, who are on a tour of Australia and Samoa. Between 18th and 26th October.

Thorpe’s intervention came shortly after Charles III delivered a speech to hundreds of attendees, including the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in which he highlighted the “long and sometimes difficult path to reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott expressed regret at Thorpe’s appearance and his words, which he described as “sad political exhibitionism”.

Australia is the only Commonwealth country that does not have a treaty with its indigenous population, nor does it recognize them in its constitution, which has been in place since 1901, when the former British colony became a federal state.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – who are of Melanesian origin and live in an island region in the north-east of Australia) – are a group that represents 3.8% of Australia’s more than 27 million residents.

They populated what is now known as Australia 65,000 years ago, until the British Crown declared the area uninhabited in the late 18th century and claimed possession of “Terra Nullis” ( Relyed on the concept of no man’s land.

Since then, these indigenous people have been victims of discrimination and, in addition to being evicted from their lands, have also complained of ill-treatment.

Although some progress has been made in the recognition of customary rights, there are still open wounds, including that of the ‘Stolen Generation’, consisting of approximately 100,000 tribal minors who were separated from their families between 1910 and 1970 and were handed over to white families for education. Or institutions.

This includes, among other problems of social and economic inequality, the failure of a referendum held last year to create an institution that would give indigenous people a voice in parliament.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had earlier thanked the British monarch for his presence in the country. “He has shown great respect for the Australian people, even at a time when we have debated the future of our constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the Crown.”