Lidia Thorpe: A Powerful Voice in Australian Black Politics

Jazmin Bingham and Lidia Thorpe

Lidia Thorpe’s actions are among the most powerful movements in Australian Black politics. As an Aboriginal person in power, she stands up to those who disregard the lives lost, cultural erosion, and ongoing trauma experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Allowing them to feel the pain and anger is a powerful way to be recognised as a survival voice. Lidia Thorpe does so much in government for the lives of all Indigenous peoples. Now, following her comments to the King, people are petitioning for her resignation.

This event has truly shown that Australia is still grappling with racism. Over 200 years since the invasion, Aboriginal people are still being mistreated as if we are less than human. As an Aboriginal person myself, I couldn’t care less if you like the King, but I’d say he can politely get lost. What right does he have to still hold power over my people from England? It’s about time someone spoke up. It’s funny how people don’t bother to investigate the truth and just side with racist Australia without question.

If you were a First Nations person, and your ancestors had been massacred or forcibly removed from their land, and sent to another country, and you were living with the ongoing trauma of that genocide while your people are still struggling today, I’m sure you’d have plenty to say. But I guess it’s easier to dismiss it as a ‘Black people’s issue’ when you’re living on our land.

We need more people to fight for us - because many of us are still struggling and suffering in silence. It’s about time you opened your eyes, saw the reality for what it is, and stood on the right side of history, instead of clinging to one-sided narratives.

To add to that, it’s almost laughable how the media is so focused on how ‘disrespectful’ it was to the King, completely missing the bigger picture. Where’s the outrage over the fact that he represents a system that literally sanctioned the killing of our people? Our ancestors were massacred, and, to this day, our people are still suffering under the effects of colonisation. Some of our mobs were even taken overseas, torn from their land and culture, and that trauma continues to live on in our communities. But the media would rather sensationalise a so-called offence to the King, while turning a blind eye to the centuries of disrespect, violence, and oppression inflicted on us.

Isn’t it disrespectful that we’re still fighting for our rights, for justice, and for our people to be seen as equal on our own land? Yet the media chooses to ignore this and focuses on protecting the image of a monarchy that has caused so much harm. We need to shift the narrative and start talking about the real disrespect - the one inflicted on Indigenous peoples.