Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe calls Queen Elizabeth II a ‘colonizing’ leader during swearing-in ceremony

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An indigenous Australian senator was heard on video calling Queen Elizabeth II a colonizer during her swearing-in ceremony on Monday. 

The remark from Lidia Thorpe of the Australian Greens party drew jeers and groans from her colleagues inside Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra. 

“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, who entered the chamber with a raised fist, was heard saying before being cut off by Senate President Sue Lines. 

“You’re not a senator if you don’t do it properly,” one of Thorpe’s colleagues said. 

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Senator Lidia Thorpe speaks during a rally in front of Parliament House on April 10, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. ((Diego Fedele/Getty Images))

Lines then asked Thorpe to recite the oath again, this time “as printed on the card.” 

Before Thorpe did so, she appeared to turn around and stare down an individual, telling that person “you gotta have some respect.” 

Incoming Senator Lidia Thorpe during her swearing-in at in the Senate at Parliament House in October 2020 in Canberra, Australia. ((Sam Mooy/Getty Images))

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Thorpe later retweeted a photo of the incident, writing on her account that “Sovereignty never ceded.” 

Queen Elizabeth II arrives to mark the completion of London’s Crossrail project at Paddington Station on May 17, 2022 in London, England.  (Andrew Matthews – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The Australian Greens party, on its website, says it acknowledges “the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognize their continuing connection to land, waters and culture,” and that “these lands were stolen and sovereignty was never ceded.”