The Australian government is going through some changes. Their new prime minister is an anti-monarchist who is actively pursuing avenues to dump the British monarchy and encourage Australia to become a republic. Aussies also elected Lidia Thorpe to the Australian senate, and she’s the first Aboriginal Australian to serve in the senate. She was sworn in on Monday, only she had to do her oath twice because she called Queen Elizabeth a colonizer. LOL.
An Australian senator took aim at Queen Elizabeth by calling her a colonizer as she recited an oath of allegiance to the monarch, who is still head of state in Australia.
Lidia Thorpe — the first Aboriginal Australian senator from Victoria who is of DjabWurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara descent — had her swearing-in ceremony on Monday at Australia’s Parliament House. She approached the floor with her right fist raised in the air and was asked to recite the traditional oath of office.
“I, sovereign Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful, and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” Thorpe said before being cut off by Senate President Sue Lines and objections from others.
One senator said, “You’re not a senator if you don’t do it properly.”
Thorpe also turned around to tell someone, “You’ve got to have some respect.”
Lines asked Thorpe to repeat the oath “as printed on the card,” which she did while holding up her fist. Thorpe later tweeted, “Sovereignty never ceded.”
Thorpe’s party, the Australian Greens party, says on its website, “The continued legacy of colonialism has not yet fully recognized the sovereignty of our First Nations peoples across the entire continent of Australia. This is a wrong that must be made right. Endemic racism, oppressive laws and policies, misunderstanding, ignorance and the lack of knowledge and education has meant that First Nations peoples have generationally been subject to policies and legislation that have impoverished many lives. At present, many still live in poverty and disadvantage, without the same rights and services that other Australians enjoy. This must be changed so that future generations of First Nations children can dream of better things.”
I’m including the video below. It sucks that Australian government officials have to pledge allegiance to the British monarch, honestly. This was bound to happen at some point. And you’ve got to think the Windsors are very irritated about all of this happening in Oz. Genuinely wonder if the Duke and Duchess of Flop Tours are going to be sent to Oz and New Zealand sometime soon.
Sovereignty never ceded. https://t.co/OowLrlUApy
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) August 1, 2022
Photos courtesy of Getty, screencap courtesy of The Guardian.
Respect for. Lidia Thorpe. I faked respect for many assholes when I was in the army. I get why she redid it.
Thank you for posting the video — it has made my very day!
I like how somebody said ‘none of us like it’. That empire is getting tinier by the day.
All the respect to Senator Lidia Thorpe.
Huge plus 1
Same here😍All the respect to Senator Lidia Thorpe
That is bizarre and disgusting that she’s the first aboriginal person elected in Australia and that she has to swear allegiance to the institution that destroyed her people.
She’s not the first Aboriginal elected to parliament – a number have been elected to the house of representatives. She is the first to be elected to the senate.
She is not the first Aboriginal Senator in Australia. She is the first Aboriginal Senator in Victoria. There were a few indigenous senators before her in other states, like Nova Peris in the Northern Territory.
@Shelly bean – you are correct. I just woke up thinking, hang: on Neville Bonner (although that was acting) and then had to come and correct my mistake. I’d also forgotten Malarndirri McCarthy, Jacqui Lambie, Nova Peris, Pat Dodson, Aden Ridgeway, Joanna lingren. That doesn’t include House of Reps.
Totally embarrassed I’d forgotten these other wonderful Senators, esp as I lived in NT when Nova was in Parliament.
That will teach me to post when I should be sleeping.
So damned true. A painful and tragic past for which there has never been a reckoning. However, by that one act she reminded EVERYONE of that dark history and brought it back into conversations. And even better, it became international news! The queen may not see it, but for sure Charles heard of it.
I’m not so sure that Charles would’ve heard it. What if he had some riyals stuck in his ears after swimming in his pool of blood money?
Neville Bonner’s first term was acting, but he was later elected in his own right. He served on the senate for 12 years!
She’s incredible. Fuck yeah Senator Thorpe.
Do not send Whip and Flop here (edit – my mistake. he’s not into whips)
That we KNOW of
😉
Cathy and Bill can have a flop holiday elsewhere, thanks very much. We don’t have time to swan around entertain them. We are busy doing important stuff; fixing damaged relationships with other world leaders, sorting out the finances and waste of the last nine years, implementing as much as possible to the aged care system according to the findings of the Royal Commission, dealing with Covid, establishing a new, brighter and fairer Australia with people like the wonderful Lidia Thorpe.,We have a referendum to vote on to give our indigenous people a voice in parliament. There is no talk of becoming a republic any time soon; most of the punters still have no appetite for things to change. Still, there is change afoot and Australia already feels like fresh air and sunshine has been let in after so long.
Well, they do have a rather flip attitude to their ‘work’, so Flip and Flop would certainly work.
Props to Senator Thorpe – a badass!! Ridiculous that elected officials must swear an oath of allegiance to an unelected head of state in the first place. In Northern Ireland, we are still part of the UK and as such our politicians are elected to the Houses of Parliament during a UK general election. Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin field their candidates on an abstentionist policy – meaning they don’t take their seats once elected. This is because MPs all must swear allegiance to the Queen – the antithesis of Irish Nationalism.
The Duke and Duchess of Flop Tours have to come to the US first – the home of “Throw the Bastards Out.” Because the Commonwealth countries don’t matter as much as American tourism does.
Yes, William is far more interested in the US than the Commonwealth (aka the colonies)
Power to the people. They made ” woke” into a bad name, but we are truly awekening. We, the colonized.
Elizabeth comes from a long line of colonizers. There is no denying it.
I reclaim and reframe “woke” every chance I get. Whenever anyone calls me “woke” as an intended insult (as a few members of my extended family often do), I always say a cheerful “thank you for noticing!”
“Colonizer” is probably among the kindest terms that Lidia Thorpe could’ve used in reference to the Queen, after all that Aboriginal Australians have endured at the hands of that archaic, racist institution. And it ain’t over, either. Colonization doesn’t really have an end. Cultural genocide is forever (and yes, Aboriginal people have valiantly attempted to revive their languages and traditions, and they’ve been more successful at it than many academics expected, but there are some things they can never get back).
There needs to be an opt-out for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders for that part of the Oath. Just as it would be sick, and spiritually harmful to make someone swear on a religious text that’s not their own, it’s shameful to force First Nations people to pledge allegiance to their colonisers.
FYI to any interested, following the recent election, Indigenous representatives make up 4.8% of Federal parliament (3.3% in general population). https://www.nit.com.au/full-list-record-number-of-indigenous-mps-voted-in-to-serve-the-australian-people/?amp
#SovereigntyNeverCeded. ✊
Swearing allegiance to a “foreign” queen in this day and age! Whew! More power to Senator Thorpe! The revolution cannot come soon enough!
She did it right the first time, though! Why the redo? Haaa! I want the House of Windsor to fall and then take all the rest with them.
she spoke no lies.
THIS!
I love it.
I really do think when QE2 passes, there will be some serious efforts by anti-monarchists in Australia to get them to leave the CW.
FYI she is not the first Aboriginal to serve in the Australian Senate. She is the first Aboriginal Senator to serve in the state of Victoria.
She’s cool. Her actions will surely lead more people to question why they have to swear allegiance to the Queen. I think William and Kate will be sent to Australia and New Zealand next year.
They have to take an oath to the sovereignty of Queen Elizabeth to be sworn in? I know the US has many, many, many dysfunctional things about its government, but Australia should perhaps consider updating that oath or allowing an alternate one, because that’s pretty screwed up.
Power to the truth.
… and the Truth shall make us free
Love and respect!
Where’s the lie
Bad enough that she needs to swear allegiance to QE2, they also have to swear allegiance to all future heirs.
Yes, I agree! To add insult to the centuries of ethnic genocide to hold allegiance to her heirs is an additional f#ck you to those that have been harmed for generations.
No lies where detected .
She’s badass. When I decided as an adult to get Canadian citizenship after moving here from India as a child, I found out I would have to swear allegiance to the Queen and her heirs! Seriously??!! Swear an oath to colonizers? The idea of it made me stop pursuing citizenship for a while. When I finally did get it and had to swear the oath, I crossed my fingers on one hand behind my back – doing that made me feel a bit better even though it didn’t change anything. Still sickens me that people have to swear oaths to that odious family.
[Insert Lucille Bluth “Good for her!” gif here.]
Legend! Calling out an entire white hierarchy while joining another white hierarchy in the hopes to dismantle all of it.
Good on her. She’s a warrior.
Senator Thorpe is correct.
Not only England but other European monarchies, ask the people of the Caribbean, and they will tell you the truth.
We endured a lot under slavery.
Not only love and forgiveness is needed but compensation directly to families of the victims. I can show you my roots with an 1859 certificate, a descendant of slaves.
God saved us all.
I used to work with people from the Gunnai Nation. They are not to be trifled with.
Thank you senator Trope. I hope she brings the discussion more in Australia. No country gain anything by being associated with the queen