‘You are not our king! You are not sovereign! You committed genocide against our people. Give us our 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 in this country!’
So began independent senator and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe’s tirade in the direction of a heavily be-medalled King Charlies III in the Great Hall of Canberra’s parliament last week. She continued:
‘You are a genocidalist. This is not your land! This is not your land. You are not my king!
You are not our king! Fuck the colony!’ These final shouted words echoed through the chamber as the senator in the possum skin cloak was led away by security.
Lidia Thorpe’s careful choice of words in this poem/speech/performance piece were quickly sliced and diced by the media, but reveal their strength only when quoted in full. Whatever else you might think of her, this is a gutsy woman who understands the theatrical possibilities of her position.
As an independent and marginalised senator, in practice she has little real power. The irony is that she was speaking here to another emasculated individual, a man who’s spent most of his life waiting for his mother to die and now dresses up and pretends to represent an extinct empire.
King Charles knows his family will only remain in their gilded cage as long as they bring in more tourist dollars than they cost. Still symbols have power, particularly when the truth is involved.
In between complaining about broken pens and fantasising about sanitary products, Charles has used his own artificially amplified voice to speak to actual power-brokers about the issues that matter to him, from the destruction of Britain’s heritage to the climate emergency.
We love free speech
Here in Australia though, moments of truth spoken directly to power (even symbolic power) are rare. The last time I can recall anything like this happening in parliament was when Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle of the Greens confronted US President George W. Bush over his illegal war in Iraq, and the ongoing imprisonment of Australian citizens in Guantanamo Bay.
Bob Brown has since recalled his terror as he prepared to interject during the president’s speech, knowing his words would resound around the world, and also knowing he was one of very few people in the right time and place to say what he said, making polite silence impossible.
At the time, W. responded by saying he ‘loved free speech’ to cheers from the Liberal benches as the Greens senators were asked to leave. This time, Charles maintained his composure and a faint grin, while a horrified Prime Minister Anthony Albanese remained sitting beside him and let security physically evict his fellow parliamentarian.
History has proved what Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle said to be true, and the Australian citizens held by the USA were freed. So it was mission accomplished, in a sense, though those two brave senators faced the same threats of violence and worse from right wing politicians and their allies in the media as Lidia Thorpe faced over the last week.
The same Peter Dutton who yelled at Bob Brown during his press conference following the interjection in 2003 is now calling on Senator Thorpe to resign.
So did she do the right thing?
Some have pointed out that Lidia Thorpe swore allegiance to the British royals. The Crown, for its part, promised to protect the original inhabitants of Australia, theoretically giving them equal rights under the law as other British subjects, but this has been a grim joke since the date of the original invasion, as it was for the people of Ireland and India.
Kungarakan Elder and Professor Tom Calma says it’s not Charles’ role to negotiate a treaty with the First Australians. He’s also said that the process of repatriating sacred items to Australia from Britain is underway.
Other Indigenous people have spoken about their pride in Lidia Thorpe’s fighting words.
As Bigambul/Gomeroi elder Aunty Barbara Flick put it, ‘Lidia is the only Indigenous person in parliament who has the guts to talk about these matters.
‘We don’t have the kind of access that Lidia does. She can take the message not only to the seat of colonisers but also to the international community’.
Responding to those who said yelling in parliament was undignified and ‘not our way’, Aunty Nerelle Nicol said, ‘How would you describe the behaviour of those who came to our shores, stole our lands, murdered, raped, plundered, pillaged and perpetrated genocide and slavery of our people and continue to watch us die at unacceptable rates?
‘Treaty would go some way in righting the wrongs of the past and healing us and our country,’ she said.
For her part, Senator Thorpe says she’s repeatedly tried to speak privately to Charles about the issues she raised in Canberra last week, but has always been rebuffed, leading her no choice but to speak out publicly in the way that she did.
Queensland!
On the weekend, one of two Australian states literally named for the British royal family returned to the loving embrace of the Liberal National Party, who have spent nine years in the political wilderness.
With no upper house in Queensland (thanks to the Labor Party of 1922), a simple majority in the Legislative Assembly means untrammeled political power.
This Queensland election was fought largely on fear and financial issues, with the LNP cherry picking statistics to suggest a law and order crisis, although youth crime has actually been steadily falling in the sunshine state since 2008, according to the Bureau of Statistics.
Labor spent most of its energy fighting the Greens in the inner city, while letting the regions fall to their traditional enemy.
Popular Greens policies, including 50 cent public transport, were picked up by Labor in a last ditch attempt to save the furniture. Cheap public transport is promised to continue under LNP Premier David Crisafulli, but public servants, green energy and the extraordinary natural environment of Queensland will come under renewed attack.
He’s also scrapped the Path to Treaty.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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