Aboriginal Senator Lidia Thorpe referred to Queen Elizabeth II as a “colonising” monarch on Monday as the newly elected member unwillingly took the oath of loyalty.
As she reluctantly swore to defend the 96-year-old monarch, who remains Australia’s head of state, Greens senator Thorpe lifted her clenched fist in a Black Power salute.
Before being reprimanded by a senator, she declared, “I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do truly and genuinely promise that I shall be faithful and that I bear true loyalty to the sovereign Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
Sue Lines, the chamber’s president, commanded Senator Thorpe to say the oath as it was written on the card.Thorpe tweeted: “Sovereignty never ceded” after saying the promise as necessary.
During the more than 100 years that Australia was a British colony, thousands of Aboriginal Australians were slain and entire communities were uprooted.
Although the nation achieved full independence in 1901, it has never actually established itself as a republic.
Australia narrowly decided against deposing the queen in 1999 amid controversy over whether parliamentarians or the public would choose her successor.
