Queen Elizabeth II referred to as a colonizer by Indigenous Australian senator

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An Indigenous Australian parliamentarian referred to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who is also Australia's head of state, as a colonizer on Monday, when she was taking her oath of office in the Senate.

"I, sovereign Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II," Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe, a DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman, said in the parliament's upper house, with her right fist raised above her head.

Senate President Susan Lines informed Thorpe that she was required to recite the oath as written. After a pause, Thorpe recited the oath, with her right fist still raised.

Thorpe has been a senator since September 2020, and was re-elected at the federal election in May.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled the wording of a draft referendum question as part of moves to enshrine an Indigenous voice in parliament.

Australia's constitution makes no reference to Indigenous people, whose leaders have toiled for generations to win recognition for injustices suffered since European colonization in the 1700s.