Who is Lidia Thorpe? Australian senator who shared cartoon of King Charles beheading

Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe staged a protest against King Charles after his speech at Parliament House in Canberra.

Watch: 'You are not my King' - Australian senator heckles Charles

The Australian senator who shouted "You are not my king" at King Charles has deleted a cartoon image of the monarch in which he was beheaded.

Charles was heckled on Monday by Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal independent senator who is a fierce campaigner for Indigenous people's rights and has a history of criticising the monarchy.

He was confronted again by First Nations activists on Tuesday, with one Indigenous elder telling the King they wanted "sovereignty", while an Aboriginal protester was arrested at the Sydney Opera House.

It followed Thorpe's verbal attack on the King after a speech he made at Parliament House in Canberra, when she shouted at him, "This is not your land, you are not my king, you are not our king", before she was escorted out of the room by security.

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe stages a protest as Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception in Canberra, Australia - 21 Oct 2024. Victoria Jones/Pool via REUTERS
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe, centre, stages a protest against King Charles at Parliament House, Canberra, Australia. (Reuters)

Thorpe then posted a cartoon on her Instagram stories that showed the King after being beheaded, but she later removed the image, writing: “Earlier tonight, without my knowledge, one of my staff shared an image to my Instagram stories created by another account. I deleted it as soon as I saw.

"I would not intentionally share anything that could be seen to encourage violence against anyone. That’s not what I’m about.”

On Tuesday, the final day of the King and Queen Camilla's tour of Australia, Indigenous activist Wayne Wharton was arrested at the Sydney Opera House where the royal couple were visiting.

A policeman speaks to a protester holding the Aboriginal flag ahead of Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla visit to the Sydney Opera House in Sydney on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Steve CHRISTO / AFP) (Photo by STEVE CHRISTO/AFP via Getty Images)
A policeman speaks to Aboriginal protester Wayne Wharton, centre, who was protesting as King Charles visited Sydney Opera House. (AFP via Getty Images)
Police detain a protester ahead of Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla visit to the Sydney Opera House in Sydney on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Steve CHRISTO / AFP) (Photo by STEVE CHRISTO/AFP via Getty Images)
Aboriginal activist Wayne Wharton, centre in blue shirt, was arrested ahead of King Charles's visit to the Sydney Opera House. (AFP via Getty Images)

He was reportedly arrested after shouting anti-monarchist slogans and refusing a police order to move on.

Wharton called Charles the "king of thieves" and, like Thorpe, had shouted, "He's not my king", before many of the crowd waiting for the couple shouting back at him, "God save the King".

Wharton had also protested outside a Sydney church service the couple attended on Sunday, saying: "We are asking King Charles respectfully to begin the process of decolonisation, to join with the Australian government and negotiate with the Aboriginal people for reparations for the illegal settlement and colonisation of so-called Australia.”

TOPSHOT - Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla pose for a group photo during their visit to the Sydney Opera House in Sydney on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Mark Baker / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MARK BAKER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
King Charles and Queen Camilla with the crowds at the Sydney Opera House. (AFP via Getty Images)

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Indigenous elder Allan Murray appeared to reference Thorpe's attack - and the desire for sovereignty - when he met the King at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) in Sydney.

Murray, from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, told the King: “Welcome to country. We’ve got stories to tell, and I think you witnessed that story yesterday in Canberra, but the story is unwavering and we’ve got a long way to achieve what we want to achieve and that’s our own sovereignty. But welcome to Gadigal land.”

There has been a mixed reaction to Thorpe's protest, with many Australians backing her desire to break away from the monarchy.

Britain's King Charles III watches a performance by the Mui Mui Bumer Gedlam group during a visit to the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Sydney on October 22, 2024. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LISA MAREE WILLIAMS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
King Charles watches a performance by the Mui Mui Bumer Gedlam group during a visit to the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Sydney. (AFP via Getty Images)

However, the country's prime minister Anthony Albanese said her actions were "disrespectful" and "not the standard of behaviour Australians rightly expect of parliamentarians".

Aboriginal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan told the Guardian Australia: "Lidia Thorpe does not speak for me and my people, and I’m sure she doesn’t speak for a lot of First Nations people."

The 51-year-old politician has a long history of activism, protest and defending the rights of Australia's Indigenous people, as well as publicly criticising the monarchy.

She has been the senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state.

Thorpe had been a member of the Greens and was the party's deputy leader in the Senate but quit her position after revelations she had a relationship with Dean Martin, the former head of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, while she was serving on the parliament's law enforcement committee.

Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe stages a protest as Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception in Canberra, Australia - 21 Oct 2024. Victoria Jones/Pool via REUTERS
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe is led away by security after protesting against King Charles at Parliament House in Canberra. (Reuters)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 07: Senator Lidia Thorpe addresses the crowd on October 07, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. With Australia's historic referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament just a week away, activity in the leadup to it has been at fever pitch in both the YES and NO camps. The Stop Black Deaths In Custody events were held against the backdrop of the referendum, which will take place on Oct. 14. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Aboriginal Australian senator Lidia Thorpe is known for her political activism. (Getty Images)

She left the party entirely to sit as an independent senator in 2023 over its backing for the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, which she opposed, instead calling for a treaty process with the Aboriginal people.

Thorpe, an Aboriginal woman of Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjmara descent, was born in 1973 and grew up in Housing Commission flats in Collingwood, Melbourne, and became a single mother at the age of 17 - she has three children.

She was declared bankrupt in 2013 and said that it had resulted from domestic violence, and was discharged from bankruptcy in 2016.

In 2017, Thorpe won a by-election as a Greens party candidate to take her seat in the Victorian state parliament, the first Indigenous woman to do so.

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 06: Incoming Senator Lidia Thorpe during her swearing-in at in the Senate at Parliament House on October 06, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. Incoming Greens senator Lidia Thorpe is replacing the party's previous leader, Richard Di Natale, who left the Parliament in August. Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman, is the first Aboriginal person elected to the Senate to represent the Greens and Victoria. (Photo by Sam Mooy/Getty Images)
Senator Lidia Thorpe during her swearing-in on 6 October 2020. (Getty Images)

Although she lost that seat a year later, she was preselected in 2020 to become a Greens senator in the federal parliament. She wore a traditional Aboriginal possum-skin cloak when being sworn in and raised her fist in a "Black power" salute.

In 2022, after being re-elected, Thorpe criticised the monarchy by referring to the then Queen as "the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" during her swearing-in ceremony. She was forced to take the oath again, removing her reference to "colonising".

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 22:  Deputy Leader of the Greens in the Senate Lidia Thorpe protests outside the British Consulate General office building  on September 22, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. Indigenous groups have held
Australian senator Lidia Thorpe during an 'abolish the monarchy' protest outside the British Consulate in Melbourne on 22 September 2022, a national day of mourning in Australia following Queen Elizabeth II's death. (Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 22: Deputy Leader of the Greens in the Senate Lidia Thorpe (right) about to speak to the crowd with mock blood on her hands on September 22, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. Indigenous groups have held
Lidia Thorpe with fake blood on her hands during a protest calling for the monarchy to be abolished. (Getty Images)

During an Australian national day of mourning following Elizabeth II's death in September of that year, Thorpe protested in an "abolish the monarchy" demonstration in Melbourne, in which she covered her hands in fake blood.

Thorpe said: "This is what today is about, the Crown has blood on their hands. Our people are still dying in this country every single day."

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 06: Senator Lidia Thorpe (Left) and a man dressed as Prince Charles (Right) during a discussion at an event opposing the coronation of King Charles organised by the Black Peoples Union (BPU) at Fitzroy Town Hall on May 06, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms is taking place at Westminster Abbey today. Notable Australians, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese MP and Governor General the Honourable David Hurley, will represent Australia at the event and celebrations are being held across Australia to mark the historic occasion. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Senator Lidia Thorpe, left, and a man dressed as King Charles during a protest in Melbourne in May 2023 opposing his coronation. (Getty Images)

In May 2023, Thorpe dressed in Elizabethan costume and sat down with a man wearing a King Charles mask as part of a protest against his coronation.

In February 2023, Thorpe was roved from the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade after she lay down in front of a float to protest against the presence of police.

The following month, she protested against an anti-transgender rights rally, which included British activist Kellie-Jay Keen, outside Parliament House.