Lidia Thorpe: Indigenous elder rebukes Australian senator’s ‘disrespectful’ protest rant at King Charles III

Highly respected Indigenous leaders have called out Senator Lidia Thorpe’s “disrespectful” confrontation with King Charles III at a reception in Canberra on Monday.

Senator Thorpe staged a solo protest against the King after he delivered a speech in the Great Hall of Parliament House on Monday afternoon.

Ms Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, marched toward the King after he sat back on stage demanding that he “give us what you stole from us, our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people”.

As security forced her out of the hall, she repeated “You are not my king”.

“You are a genocidalist, this is not your land. This is not your land. You are not my king, you are not our king.”

From outside the hall, she could be heard shouting “F... the colony”.

Ms Thorpe’s display has been widely condemned from both sides of the political fold, and now respected Indigenous leaders have also rebuked her one-woman protest.

Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan was part of an official greeting party and was sitting near the King in the Great Hall on Monday when the Senator started shouting.

Aunty Violet, 69, who is often called to perform Welcome to Country ceremonies to Ngunnawal land in Canberra, said Ms Thorpe’s display was “disrespectful”.

“Lidia Thorpe does not speak for me and my people, and I’m sure she doesn’t speak for a lot of First Nations people. It was disrespectful to come there and go on like that, there’s a time and place,” she told The Guardian.

After the protest, Ms Thorpe said in a statement she was forced to act as she did after her numerous requests to meet the King were “ignored”.

She said her protest was supported by Traditional Owners and that she had backing from First Nations people and “Blak Sovereign Movement Elders” from around the country.

“The King is not our Sovereign, he’s not our King,” Ms Thorpe’s statement read.

“Today I felt it was right to speak up on behalf of the Blak Sovereign Movement to call out genocide and the invasion and theft of our lands, waters and skies by the Crown.”

Ms Sheridan acknowledged the pain and suffering colonisation had wrought on generations of Indigenous people across Australia, but she said it was important to “bring healing” for the next generations, rather than foster negativity.

“We have a lot of unfinished business but I don’t want to be negative,” she said.

“Let’s sit down and talk together, for our next generations to bring healing.”

She said when she “warmly” greeted Charles and Queen Camilla in Canberra, her welcome “was all from the heart”.

Another prominent Indigenous leader, and key architect of the Voice to Parliament proposal, Professor Marcia Langton also called for an apology to the royals for Senator Thorpe’s stunt.

“I do hope that the King and the Queen and others will not feel that this is the view of Indigenous Australians; far from it,” Professor Langton told The Australian.

“The majority of Indigenous Australians, whatever their views on the republic proposal, have had a respectful relationship with the monarchy, including the late Queen and Prince Phillip and other members of the royal family.

“I believe they are owed an apology. I would like to apologise to them. It saddens me that this visit to Australia has been marred in this way.”

Nova Peris AM, the first Indigenous woman elected to Federal Parliament, went a step further and apologised to the royals for Ms Thorpe’s outburst, saying she was “deeply disappointed” with the way Thorpe chose to engage with the King.

“Today’s outburst by Senator Lidia Thorpe does not reflect all of Aboriginal Australia,” Ms Peris wrote on X on Monday.

“Her outburst, which disrupted what should have been a respectful event, was both embarrassing and disrespectful to our nation and the Royal Family.”

The former senator said although she supported Australia’s uncoupling from the monarchy — as a former co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement — it would not be achieved through “rude interruptions or public outbursts”.

She added that Ms Thorpe swore an oath to the Crown and to uphold the Constitution when she was first elected, and that: “If Senator Thorpe was not on board with this, she should not have accepted her position and made her affirmation in the first place”.

“Senator Thorpe’s actions today do not reflect the manners, or approach to reconciliation, of Aboriginal Australians at large,” she continued.

“They reflect only her, and it is important to clarify that the vast majority of us would not engage in this unconstructive confrontational way.

“As a nation, we are continually recognising the deep injustices faced by Aboriginal people. However, as hard as that journey is, it requires respectful dialogue, mutual understanding, and a shared commitment to healing — not divisive actions that draw attention away from the progress we are making as a country.

“I would like to extend my sincere apologies to King Charles III and Queen Camilla on behalf of all those who value mutual respect and the dignity of our nation.”