‘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’
Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe described Britain’s Elizabeth II as a “colonizing” queen and raised her fist in a Black power salute while taking the oath in Australia’s parliament.
Ms. Thorpe, a greens party senator for Victoria, also raised her fist while walking up to the centre of the parliament for the oath on Monday morning. The senator looked visibly reluctant as she swore to serve the 96-year-old British monarch, who remains Australia’s head of state.
“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,” she said. Ms. Thorpe added the word “colonizing”, which is not in the formal oath.
She was then asked by Labor senate president Sue Lines to repeat the oath as printed on the card, as other senators voiced their criticism. “You are required to recite the oath as printed on the card,” Ms. Lines told the Greens senator. “Please recite the oath.”
She recited the lines correctly at the second attempt but went on Twitter to declare “sovereignty never ceded” as she shared a photo of her raising her fist. Ms. Thorpe is a vocal indigenous rights campaigner and has raised questions about the country’s constitution.
Section 42 of the Australian constitution states that “every senator and every member of the House of Representatives shall before to take his seat make and subscribe” to the oath of allegiance. The provision can be changed only with a referendum.
Australia gained independence from British rule in 1901 but never became a fully-fledged republic like several other colonies. Australia was a British colony for more than 100 years, a period when thousands of Aboriginal Australians were killed and displaced.
“I do support a republic,” prime minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday. But he said a referendum on that issue would have to wait until after another one that promises to give Aboriginal Australians an institutional role in policymaking. “Our priority this term is the recognition of First Nations people in our constitution,” he said.
Ms. Thorpe was attacked by parliamentary colleagues for her modified oath. One of them could be heard yelling: “You’re not a senator if you don’t do it properly.”
During her first swearing-in in 2020, Ms. Thorpe said her community was not excited about that moment because she would be “swearing allegiance to the colonizer”. Last month, she dubbed Australia a “colonial project” and said the national flag did not represent her.
“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,”