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18 Oct 2024 8:36
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  •   Home > News > International

    Is King Charles responsible for the wrongs of the past? Indigenous folk are having their say

    The king and queen are coming to Sydney and Canberra this week but what do mob think about the visit and what would they like to see happen while he’s here?


    King Charles III's first visit to Australia as the head of state has sparked mixed opinions from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people impacted by British colonisation.

    Basket weaver Abe Muriata is a Girramay traditional owner and elder who has previously met the king and says he isn't expecting an apology.

    "They ruined a lot of countries, ruined a lot of lives, same here in Australia. But I'm not going to hold that against him."

    Yorta Yorta man and stolen generations survivor Ian Hamm agrees, and says Australians need to grapple with our own dark past.

    "The colonisation of Australia happened in the name of the king, I think it was George III at that stage, and continued with every subsequent monarch," he said.

    "So things that were done in the name of the crown, everyone should know that history."

    This will be King Charles's seventeenth visit to Australia, and this time he is bringing his wife Queen Camilla to Sydney and Canberra, ahead of Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

    Among the public engagements, they will go to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial in Canberra, and the queen will have a conversation about domestic violence, as well as meeting with the charity she is a patron of, GIVIT.

    Abe Muriata, who lives in Cardwell, Queensland, first met King Charles in 2015 in London, when he was commissioned to make a basket for the British museum.

    "We hit we hit it off … he was very impressed with the basket because it's finely woven," he said.

    "He asked, 'do I still pass it on to my children and all that'".

    At the time, the then-prince acknowledged the exhibition explored the "difficult and painful episodes in Australian history — dispossession, social dislocation and the stolen generation."

    Abe met Charles again when he visited Australia later that year and thought he had a good grasp on "people and their cultures".

    "I would have loved to see him and his wife", the North Queensland artist said of this visit.

    "I got great respect for the person. Not easy being the king, I suppose.

    "I want to see him enjoy himself."

    Widjabul Wia-bal woman and CEO of GetUp Larissa Baldwin-Roberts says she personally wouldn't welcome the royals with "open arms", but she respects those who do.

    "I think it's just outdated. It's not who we are," she said.

    "I think we're past the point of just making flowery statements and acknowledgements of First Nations people and we're talking about the ability to make decisions over our own lives. Where is that going in the conversation now?"

    The royal visit comes just days after the first anniversary of the failed Voice to Parliament referendum that sought to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution through an advisory body.

    "There's a lot of promises that the government made before the last election to First Nations people that have now been abandoned," Ms Baldwin-Roberts said.

    "I feel like the focus on the royal visit and the republic and all these debates it feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth," she told the Indigenous Affairs Team.

    Ian Hamm, who chairs several boards including the First Nations Foundation, has "ambivalence" about the visit.

    As part of the stolen generations, Ian was adopted by a white family and raised not knowing who he was and where he was from.

    Ian says he doesn't hold the king responsible for the policies of Australian parliaments.

    "That's all 100 per cent owned by Australia and Australians," he said.

    "It would be unfair to pin the foreign monarch with that, a constitutional monarch which really has had no effect on the governance of Australia since the 19th century, to be honest."

    He doesn't expect an apology from the king given his 'apolitical' role.

    "If the king chose to do that, good on him for doing it. If he doesn't, well, that's fine too."

    Ahead of last year's coronation there was a call across the globe for an "apology, reparation, and repatriation of artefacts and remains".

    For decades, the monarchs and their representatives, including King Charles, have been petitioned by Australia's Aboriginal communities for treaty, land rights and recognition of Indigenous sovereignty.

    While Abe thinks the federal government should take the initiative to enter treaty negotiations, known as Makarrata, he says it wouldn't hurt if the king had a word with them.

    "If it ever crosses his mind, I would like him to say, 'Yeah, look guys, call for a treaty here. Have a treaty and make this a good place for everybody'."

    Larissa Baldwin-Roberts hopes the king addresses the referendum outcome while in Australia, as well as truth-telling and treaties.

    The king reportedly has said it is a question for Australia if the country wants to become a republic.

    This is something Larissa thinks will happen.

    "I think we should have an Aboriginal head of state," she said.

    Ian Hamm is in favour of the "minimalist model of a republic" keeping the same governance structures while cutting ties with the monarchy.

    But he says this conversation is not the priority.

    "I think there are more pressing issues for Aboriginal people and for Australia more widely than to focus on becoming a republic."


    ABC




    © 2024 ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved

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