Self Identified Race Activists

This is Lidia Alma Thorpe, Senator for the Greens in Victoria State, Australia ....

Lidia Thorpe - Australian Green Senator

I wouldn't have guessed this from looking at her, but she states that her heritage is of  DjabWurrung, Gunnai, and Gunditjmara first Australian nation descent, and that she left school at 14 because she experienced racism as an 'Aboriginal girl' being called a 'Chico baby, coon, Abo'. 

Of course, like many largely women who claim First Nation, Indigenous American or Aboriginal descent, we have to be a little wary, as we have seen a string of women making false or highly dubious claims in this regard. I am thinking of women (and famously one male actor, Espera Oscar de Corti) such as 'Black activist', Rachel Anne Dolezal who was later found to be white, or US politician Elizabeth Warren who in 1984, contributed recipes to a Native American cookbook and identified herself as Cherokee (First Nation American).

Then in 2012 , Ms Warren said that "being Native American has been part of my story, I guess, since the day I was born" .... of course this later proved to be largely false (DNA found that Warren's ancestry is mostly European but "strongly support[ed] the existence of an unadmixed (sic)Native American ancestor [north or south American native]", likely "in the range of 6 to 10 generations ago"), and in February 2019, Warren apologized for having identified as Native American saying that she used the identification as "native in the Senate".

Brought Up With Aboriginal Family

However, Ms Thorpe was genuinely raised as an aboriginal child, and is now a 48-year-old mother and grandmother (she reportedly has three children and first became a mother at the age of 17 .. the youngest was from her ex-husband). She does of course have both European and Aboriginal ancestors, so her ethnic self identification is a apparently a matter of upbringing and or choice, rather than strictly by genetic make-up.

Like many of the other women who have self identified in such a way, she is a strong activist in the cause of her identified ethnic group, but there have been a few bumps in her road to righteous anger .... In 2013, she was declared bankrupt, with over $700,000 in debts, including monies owed to Indigenous Business Australia, and $55,000 owed to the Australian Taxation Office ... but claimed that this massive debt was incurred as a result of domestic violence, where she lost "everything" to protect herself and family from the "impossible situation".

Apparently undeterred by this set back, she later  set up another business called 'Clan Corporation', which she has described as “not very active at the moment,” and that would be closed after she was elected MP.

She first became nationally known in Australia, after stating in a TV documentary that "I don't identify as being Australian. It's a concept that's been imposed on our people since we're invaded. The colonisers came and set up the colony which they now call Australia. 'Mass genocide occurred.'"

Whilst on another occasion, after she revealed that she removed the Australian national flag during press conferences, she defended this saying that  "The Australian flag does not represent me or my people. It represents the colonisation of these lands, and it has no permission to be here, there's been no consent, there's been no treaty, so that flag does not represent me."

Lidia Thorpe - Black Power Salute

 She has now made the International news, by firstly:

• Taking the oath alone, after being absent when the other senators were sworn in the week before, 

and secondly; 

• By raising her fist in a 'black power' salute, and then when she took the oath of allegiance saying "I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second."

 ... but the chamber's president Sue Lines told her "Senator Thorpe, Senator Thorpe, you are required to recite the oath as printed on the card," after which Thorpe smirked, but she eventually recited the oath correctly and was sworn into parliament. She then went  on Twitter and declared: "Sovereignty never ceded."

Needless to say, many questioned her motives on social media such as Twitter, as being attention seeking, with some apparently angered:

• 'Racist, anti-Australian, hate speech spewing trolls like you have no place in government and should be behind bars.'
• 'A total embarrassment to parliament and those she claims she represents.'
• 'How childish Lidia... Another look at me moment for you. Can you please tell me one good thing you've done for indigenous Australians?' 

She is of course a supporter of reparations to "first nation inhabitants" of Australia, and also of the idea behind the proposed 'Indigenous Voice to Parliament,' which will include their concerns in any future legislation that impact Aboriginal people. 

However the powers of this Voice are ill defined (taxes, reparations, land use, defence, foreign policy, nuclear power ... what doesn't affect Aboriginals as well as everyone else?), and are apparently subject to a referendum over the next three years. It would seem stupid for the non first nation voters to vote for this woke policy ... but who knows, perhaps Western European culture is in such decline worldwide, that Australians will accept this nonsense. 

I seriously worry about where we are heading at the moment .... we reap what we sow.

Mini Update: Australia rejected the proposed indigenous "Voice to Parliament" - Interestingly, Senator Lidia Thorpe was actually on the side of the 'No' campaign. But only because she didn't think The Voice proposals went far enough .... So she supported a separate 'No' movement, spearheaded by herself and the indigenous-run 'Blak Sovereign movement, which opposed 'The Voice'. This campaign called instead for a legally binding treaty between First Nations peoples and the Australian government to be prioritised.

"This is not our constitution, it was developed in 1901 by a bunch of old white fellas, and now we're asking people to put us in there - No thanks."

Further update 21/10/2024: The 'aboriginal.' independent. Australian senator has just made the news again. This time shouting "you are not my King" at King Charles, when he addressed the Australian parliament on a state visit. She really is a bit of a saddo, but hey, if it makes her happy to identify as an Australian aboriginal, then that's up to her and those who choose to vote for her. We can't laugh too much at her antics, after all, we have George Galloway.