The activism of an Australian senator revives the question of Aboriginal rights

LETTER FROM SYDNEY Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe, at the Australian Parliament, in Canberra, October 21, 2024. VICTORIA JONES / VIA REUTERS Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe is not in the habit of going unnoticed or cowering. Monday October 21, dressed in a traditional possum skin coat, she headed straight towards King Charles III, Australian head of state, then received at Parliament in Canberra as part of a visit of six days in the country, to express to him all the bad things she thought about the British Crown. “We want a treaty in this country. You are a genocidaire. This is not your land (…). You are not our king. Damn the colony! », she had time to shout before being firmly escorted towards the exit. A stroke of brilliance which left his colleagues mortified, but which had the merit of putting the question of the rights and recognition of Aboriginal people back in the media spotlight, a year after a historic referendum aimed at granting them a voice in Parliament and which ended in a no. “For approximately two hundred and fifty years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples [un chapelet d’îles situé entre l’Australie et la Nouvelle-Guinée] used all kinds of tactics to make their demands heard, explains Celeste Liddle, a public figure in this community. Lidia Thorpe introduced a form of direct, grassroots activism at the very heart of places of power. Australians had rarely been exposed to this approach. » Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Australians say no to the Aboriginal “voice” Read later The collision between the seemingly polite world of Australian politics and the disruptive activism of the elected official was brutal. For most parliamentarians who saw one of their colleagues insult the British sovereign in the Chamber itself, it was difficult to imagine a more embarrassing scene. Australia, although independent since 1901, has remained a constitutional monarchy. In 1999, voters, when asked about a possible change in the Constitution aimed at making their country a republic, responded in the negative. “Contrary, on my social networks, on which I am in contact with a large network of Aboriginal people, I noticed great pride and a lot of enthusiasm for what Lidia Thorpe dared to do against the king”, deciphers Celeste Liddle. Terra nullius This is not the first time that Lidia Thorpe has challenged the established order and shed harsh light on the demands of Australian indigenous peoples. In 2022, during her swearing-in after her election to Federal Parliament under the banner of environmentalists, she presented herself with a raised fist, in reference to the Black Power movement, and added the epithet “colonizer” to “her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Reprimanded at the time by the session president, she was forced to start again, an exercise to which she complied by adopting a mocking tone. You have 55.62% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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