the senator who questioned King Charles III on sanctioned colonization

Lidia Thorpe, the Aboriginal senator who questioned King Charles III on colonization during the monarch's visit to the Australian Parliament on October 21, received a symbolic sanction on Monday. Senators voted 46 to 12 in favor of a motion of censure against her, judging her behavior “they slander», «disruptive and disrespectful“. Censorship is a purely symbolic sanction aimed at expressing the dissatisfaction of elected officials regarding the actions of one of their own.

During his six-day tour of the Oceanian country of which he is head of state, King Charles visited Parliament for a speech. At the end, Lidia Thorpe shouted: “Give us back our lands, give us back what you stole from us!»

During a minute-long diatribe, she also proclaimed: “You are not my king“, denouncing what she described as “genocide» of the Aborigines at the time of European colonization of Australia. Lidia Thorpe then turned her back on the monarch and other dignitaries as they stood for the country's anthem.

«I will resist colonization in this country”

Australia was a British colony for more than a century, during which thousands of Aboriginal Australians were killed and entire communities displaced.

It gained de facto independence in 1901, but never became a republic. Charles III remains head of state. On the national channel ABC, Lidia Thorpe said she was disappointed with her sanction, saying that she “would do again» the same thing if the king returned.

«I will resist colonization in this country. I pledge allegiance to the true sovereigns of these lands: the First Peoples are the true sovereignsshe said, referring to Australia's first inhabitants.