‘Not my king’: Who is Australian lawmaker Lidia Thorpe, who accused King Charles of genocide?

King Charles is on his 16th official visit to Australia.

This is also his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer.

However, during his visit to the Australian parliament on Monday, he was accused of “genocide” by an Indigenous senator, shocking assembled lawmakers and other dignitaries.

This came moments after he delivered a speech in which he paid his “respects to the traditional owners of the lands.”

Here’s all we know about her.

Who is Lidia Thorpe?

Lidia Thorpe, 51, is an independent senator and Indigenous activist, known for her attention-grabbing political stunts and fierce opposition to the monarchy.

In 2017, she joined the Green Party to become the first Indigenous woman elected to the state parliament of Victoria.

She was re-elected to serve as a senator for the party in the federal government in 2020, despite losing her seat in 2018.

She raised her hand in a “black power” gesture when she was sworn into parliament. She carried an Aboriginal messaging stick while donning a traditional possum-skin cloak.

The stick was covered in 441 markings to symbolise the deaths of Aboriginal people who were killed after the 1991 royal commission investigating deaths in jail.

Thorpe previously told Nine newspapers, “I had no choice in being influenced by black activists and the black struggle of my people… I was born into it and I don’t know anything else.”

When she was re-elected in 2022, she demonstrated once more, when the late Queen Elizabeth II was then head of state of Australia.

“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said before being rebuked by a Senate official.

“Senator Thorpe, Senator Thorpe, you are required to recite the oath as printed on the card,” said the chamber’s president Sue Lines.

The senator eventually became an independent politician in 2023 to “amplify the black sovereign movement.” This came after disputes within the Greens over the projected Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which sought to express the opinions of Indigenous people in parliament.

Thorpe was in the news last year in April after a video of her fighting outside a strip club in Melbourne was released.

What happened at the Australian parliament?

Charles had finished speaking when Thorpe shouted that she did not accept Charles’ sovereignty over Australia.

“You committed genocide against our people,” she shouted, adding, “Giving us over land back. 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 was later stopped from approaching the King, who spoke quietly to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the podium but was otherwise unfazed.

Thorpe was then escorted out of the chamber.

What was Thorpe protesting for?

Australia was a British colony for more than 100 years. The nation’s Indigenous population was massacred during the colonisation period (1788–1930), and racism and discrimination against Indigenous Australians persist to this day.

The country gained de factor independence in 1901, but has never become a fully-fledged republic. King Charles is the current head of state.

In 1999, Australians narrowly voted against removing the queen, amid a row over whether her replacement would be chosen by members of parliament, not the public.

In 2023, the country overwhelmingly rejected measures to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution and to create an Indigenous consultative assembly.

Thorpe’s demonstration highlighted a treaty that many are advocating for, one that would allow Australia to become a republic, separate from the United Kingdom, and include a treaty with Aboriginal people.

She has said the incarceration and violence caused by colonisation can only end with a national treaty between the government and Indigenous people to address First Nations’ issues.

Thorpe told Breakfast with Kay Burley she stood by her actions. “We are the real sovereigns in this country,” she said. “The King lives in your country, he’s from your country. He can’t be our King. We have our bones and our skulls still in his family’s possession. We want that back. We want our land back. And we want your King to take some leadership and sit at the table and discuss a treaty with us.”

Asked why she called him “genocidal,” Thorpe said, “There are thousands of massacre sites in this country from invasion and someone needs to answer for that. He is the successor, then he needs to answer.”

Thorpe added her outburst was for “global truth-telling about the royals who caused so much devastation — to not only your people in this country but Indigenous people around the world.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott from the conservative Liberal Party, who attended the event, told reporters it was an “unfortunate political exhibitionism.”

A palace source said the king and queen were grateful to the many thousands of people who had turned out, adding they “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.”

With inputs from agencies