Pro-Palestine & Indigenous Rights Advocates Protest King Charles During Royal Visit
Image: "Empire built on genocide" banner at anti-monarchist protest via X user @SwissMama06
Pro-Palestine Protesters and Indigenous Rights Advocates gathered outside a church to protest the recent royal visit of King Charles.
King Charles makes first royal stop in Australia
This is the first time King Charles and Queen Camilla Parker-Bowles have come to Australia since the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, and the first time a British monarch arrives on our shores since 2011 when Queen Elizabeth II visited Down Under.
The royals arrived at St Thomas’ Anglican Church on Sunday to attend the 10.30am service at St Thomas’ Anglican Church in North Sydney. The service was officiated by the Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel.
Demonstrators were seen gathering outside the North Sydney church an hour before the royals’ arrival.
Pro-Palestine protesters and Indigenous rights advocates held banners reading “decolonise” and “empire built on genocide”.
A video shared on X captures anti-monarchy protesters directing shouts of “shame” and “shame on you” at King Charles III during his visit. This demonstration of dissent highlights the protesters’ profound frustrations with the monarchy and its historical implications.
Heavily armed police patrolled the area, with officers conducting thorough checks beneath vehicles.
In another video posted by X user @ZandiSussex, demonstrators could be heard chanting, “Too many coppers, not enough justice,” while a large number of police officers stood nearby. AB remarked in her caption, “Talk about proving a point! I took this video of the police standing right in front of the protesters as they shouted “Too many police! Not enough justice!”
Indigenous Rights: Sovereignty Was Never Ceded
The groups also chanted, “Aboriginal Land, Always Was, Always Will Be,” emphasising their commitment to recognising Indigenous sovereignty and the enduring connection between Indigenous peoples and their ancestral lands.
Zandi posted a video to X featuring an Aboriginal protester who addressed the groups’ decision to protest the presence of the royals, defending their position.
“We’re here today to prove to the world to get educated on the word ‘sovereignty’. We are taught that Charles is a sovereign King. Sovereignty was never ceded in these lands.
The British regime came here with force, with guns, with land theft, with murder, with massacre, with rape. That is continuing today, so we’re standing here to make sure that people understand. Please go home and get some truth in your education and understand that sovereignty was never ceded. We are still here. This is not his country, and he is not our King,” the Indigenous rights advocate declared.
Protesters also chanted “Not our King”, “The genocide continues” amplifying their calls for justice and solidarity in the face of ongoing struggles faced by marginalised communities.
A History of Protests During Royal Visits
This is not the first time a royal visit has prompted protests by local citizens and advocacy groups.
In 1994, Australian barrister David Kang fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) in protest of the treatment of several hundred Cambodian asylum seekers held in detention camps in Australia.
At the time, 23-year-old Kang was found guilty of threatening unlawful violence and sentenced to 500 hours of community service
Additional incidents of international protests include Irish nationalist demonstrators calling for a “Free Ireland now!” during a Royal Ballet performance of “Sleeping Beauty” at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1981, as reported by the Washington Post.
Also, in 2022, The Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, cancelled their first stop on a tour in Belize after locals protested their visit.
The royals had received permission to land their helicopter on a soccer field embroiled in a land dispute between Belizean citizens and Flora and Fauna International (FFI), a conservation group of which William is a patron, according to Reuters.
Protesters carried signs that read, “Prince William leave our land,” “Not your land, not your decision,” and “Colonial legacy theft continues with Prince & FFI”.
