Indigenous Australian Sen. Lidia Thorpe called Queen Elizabeth II a “colonizer” and raised her hand in a “black power” salute while pledging allegiance to the queen during her swearing-in ceremony Monday.
Thorpe, who took the oath of office alone after missing the primary ceremony last week, was forced to redo the pledge after failing to pledge her allegiance correctly to England’s monarch, who serves as Australia’s head of state.
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“I, sovereign Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” Thorpe said in a video of the ceremony.
Sue Lines, the senate leader, interrupted Thorpe and told the new senator that she must recite it as printed on a card. Section 42 of the Australian constitution states that “every senator and every member of the House of Representatives shall before taking his seat make and subscribe” the oath, according to the Guardian.
After the ceremony, Thorpe retweeted a photo of her standing with her arm raised and tweeted the phrase “Sovereignty never ceded.”
Sovereignty never ceded. https://t.co/OowLrlUApy
— Senator Lidia Thorpe (@SenatorThorpe) August 1, 2022
Thorpe, a member of the Australian Greens who represents Victoria, referred to Australia as a “colonial project” last month and claimed the national flag does not represent her but rather colonization from the 1780s. The country, which had thousands of indigenous people inhabiting the land, was established as a British colony in 1788 after 1,500 British officers, convicts, and civilians landed in modern-day Sydney Cove.
“It represents the colonization of these lands, and it has no permission to be here, there’s been no consent, there’s been no treaty, so that flag does not represent me,” Thorpe said. “I am here for my people, and I will sacrifice swearing allegiance to the colonizer to get into the media like I am right now, to get into the Parliament like I am every day.”
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Australians last attempted to break from the monarchy in 1999 but narrowly failed to pass the measure. The notion of Australia becoming a republic has gained traction in recent years, but citizens have disagreed on how selecting a new “head of state” would be achieved.
