The ACT's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people commissioner has defended the actions of Senator Lidia Thorpe's comments towards King Charles on Monday, saying she "stood up to the monarchy and asked for equity, justice and equality".
Bundjalung Widubul-Wiabul woman Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts' comments came as a media storm erupted in the aftermath of Senator Thorpe comments and actions.
Senator Thorpe, draped in a Possum Skin Cloak, walked towards the royals, and said: "You committed genocide against our people."
"Give us our land back, give us what you stole from us.
"Give us a treaty. We want a treaty in this country."
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who walked out of the apology to the stolen generation in 2008, said Senator Thorpe should resign, whilst Indigenous leader Marcia Langton condemned the protest, telling The Australian it "saddens me that this [Royal] visit to Australia has been marred in this way".
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Commissioner Turnbull-Roberts, however, said the discussion of Treaty and the Monarchy was entirely valid.
Posting to social media, she said Senator Thorpe's demands for a "Treaty Republic" is what "Mob are demanding", arguing they are "necessary to recognise historic wrongs and provide an opportunity to look at the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people".
"Treaty is reached after a process of negotiation, which involves the parties coming together as equals to decide on legally binding responsibilities and duties," Commissioner Turnbull-Roberts said.
"This is long overdue."
Opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the outburst was an "embarrassing attempt to seek attention," but Senator Thorpe told National Indigenous Times on Monday evening she had written a number of letters to King Charles III making her case for Treaty, land back and restorative justice before her protest made headlines around the world.
She said she expected the king would understand her message and the point of her action.
"If he's an educated man he will understand that. We are teaching our kids that, they understand so surely; he has been around long enough, he knows that his family has done wrong by our people and many others around the world," she said.
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Some Indigenous leaders backed Senator Thorpe's comments on Monday but disagreed with her long-term position of opposing the voice, however Ms Turnbull-Roberts defended the Senator, arguing the demands for Treaty are "the demands for equity".
"For justice. For sovereignty," she said.
She argued there is "nothing more harmful or disrespectful" than to invite the monarchy who inflicted "genocide on our people" onto the lands it was enacted on.
"We don't celebrate genocide, the removal of our babies or the harm against anyone," Commissioner Turnbull-Roberts said.
Defending Senator Thorpe, she said the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman is the "person who will first show up and last to leave," arguing she "calls it how it is".
"When Thorpe speaks, she's got the ancestors right with her," Commissioner Turnbull-Roberts said.
"She'll keep shaking the world, and our people are right there with her."
Kurin Minang human rights expert and law academic Dr Hannah McGlade told The Australian the "lack of reparations in relation to how Australia was colonised unlawfully without a Treaty" is an issue which has an ongoing impact.
"The British Crown played a real part in this and there are Indigenous peoples globally who are saying that the Crown really should be concerned about the way that their institution has harmed Indigenous peoples," she said.
Responding to questions regarding Senator Thorpe's protest, the British Prime Minister ruled out reparations and a formal apology for colonialism and the UK's involvement in the slave trade.
