The royal visit to Canberra was always going to touch on Australia’s history with its Indigenous peoples, but Thorpe’s intervention meant the King and Queen faced it more directly than initially planned.
The King and Queen had arrived in Canberra earlier in the day and were greeted by a reception line of politicians, schoolchildren and Ngunnawal Elder Aunty Serena Williams, a representative of the Indigenous people.
They were given a traditional welcome into the Great Hall of Canberra’s Parliament House to the sound of a digeridoo.
The King spoke about indigenous communities and what he had learnt from them saying his own experience had been “shaped and strengthened by such traditional wisdom”.
“In my many visits to Australia, I have witnessed the courage and hope that have guided the nation’s long and sometimes difficult journey towards reconciliation,” he said.
But as he sat down the shouts of Thorpe’s protest rang around the hall.
Buckingham Palace has made no official comment on Thorpe’s protest, instead focussing on the crowds who had turned up to see the King and Queen in Canberra.
A Palace source said that the royal couple were deeply touched by the many thousands who had turned out to support them.
