Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe disrupts proceedings as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a reception at Parliament House, 21 October, 2024. Photo: Lukas Coch / ABC
The Australian senator who yelled at King Charles says she did so to raise the world's attention to the "ongoing, sophisticated genocide" of the country's first people.
At a royal reception in Parliament House on Monday senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, shouted "you are not our King" and "this is not your land" at the British monach.
Speaking to RNZ, Thorpe says she is loud and proud and calls out injustice where she sees it.
"And with that so-called King sitting in all that stolen wealth, he needed to be called out for the injustices that his people, that his ancestors inflicted on our people who are still reeling in the effects of that invasion," Thorpe told Morning Report.
"So people can call it for what they like but this made international news obviously and that was the whole point, was to get the message out around the world that our people in this country, first peoples of this country, are still suffering the effects of invasion and that there still is an ongoing sophisticated genocide in this country against my people and it has to stop."
Australian senator on why she yelled at the King
Asked about criticism of her actions by other First Nations leaders, Thorpe said she was supported by a large number of people.
"Media and government are always good at picking out which Blackfella they want to speak to to undermine another one, that is part of the colonial oppression that continues in this country.
"I have got thousands and thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around this country saying thank you for what you did, that's what we've all been fighting for and saying for decades, that's what our ancestors and our old people wanted you to do."
Thorpe said Australia needed to become a republic but a treaty was needed first.
"The Crown has only caused heartache and pain to indigenous people around the world.
"We need to be at the table as first people, we don't want the crumbs at the end, we want to sit at the table and negotiate a way forward in this country."
A treaty was needed "because we have 24,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children that have been taken from their families, we have over 600 deaths in custody where not one officer, no one has ever been held responsible", she said.
"We have a suicide rate that's going out of control and our people are sick of going to funerals."
Asked what the terms of a treaty should be, Thorpe said it was not the role of a politician to decide and would need to be negotiated with every language group around the country.
"But I know for sure that we want our land back and I know for sure that we want what that kingdom stole from us, starting with our remains - they need to be sent back as a matter of priority and if the King has any kind of leadership about him, he'll make that happen as a gesture of good faith instead of standing up in a Parliament that he created to oppress us, instead of doing that and saying all these niceities to make himself look good.
"Put your money where your mouth is Charlie and give us back what you stole."
King Charles and Queen Camilla did not react to Thorpe's protest and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has defended the King.