Oz senator in ‘coloniser’ jibe at Queen as she takes oath
AN ABORIGINAL activist yesterday called the Queen a ‘coloniser’ as she was sworn in as an Australian senator.
Dressed in black, 48-year-old Lidia Thorpe marched across the floor of the Senate in Canberra and mockingly recited her version of the oath of allegiance to Her Majesty.
With her right fist in the air in a Black Power salute, she recited: ‘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.’
As other senators voiced criticism, Labour’s Senate president Sue Lines told the Greens senator: ‘You are required to recite the oath as printed on the card. Please recite the oath.’
Miss Thorpe, who has Aboriginal and European ancestors, reluctantly repeated the oath as printed. Amid the commotion another senator was heard to say: ‘None of us like it.’
She was immediately condemned by other politicians and received widespread criticism from Australians.
One described her as an ‘Angela Davis wannabe’ – a reference to the US Black Power leader – and admonished for her ‘unthinking and infantile approach to closing the gap’ between caucasian and indigenous people. Social media critics described Miss Thorpe as an embarrassment.
But Miss Thorpe tweeted that indigenous people – who lived in Australia before the British arrived – never surrendered to colonialists. ‘Sovereignty never ceded,’ she wrote.
There is growing support for the nation to sever ties with the monarchy, particularly now that a new Labour prime minister, Anthony Albanese, believes the time is ripe for a move towards becoming a republic.
He has even appointed a minister of the republic, but a referendum would have to be held before anything could move forward.
‘Sovereignty never ceded’