King and Queen cop ear-bashing welcome in Knight’s Canberra toon

Their Royal Highnesses King Charles and Queen Camilla paid us a visit this week. The King has a deep affection for Australia and has been here many times. It started in 1966 when he was sent here as a schoolboy, boarding for two terms at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop rural campus, where he said he had his “Pommy* bits” bashed out of him”!

Those formative* moments strangely enough gave the young Prince Charles a lasting fond memory of Down Under. The difference between this visit and those of the past was that it was the first time he has dropped in on us as the reigning* monarch*. The other thing to note about this trip was that the King is recovering from cancer, so the royal itinerary* was much shorter than usual.

Short though it may have been, the visit did provide plenty of bang for our buck*, especially when a senator in the Australian federal parliament protested about Indigenous rights and British colonial rule during the King’s address to those gathered in King’s Hall in Parliament House, Canberra.

Following the King’s speech, Independent Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe, wearing a possum skin cloak, strode towards the seated monarch and shouted that he was not her king, that Britain had committed genocide* and stole lands from her people and that she wanted a treaty between Aboriginal people and the government. Jaws dropped and she was briskly escorted from the event.

It raised questions about the inappropriate nature of her protest but also the long-argued issue of Reconciliation* with our First Australians. A lot of Australians felt she had abused her position as a Member of Parliament by insulting our head of state*, to whom she had pledged allegiance* when taking the oath of office. Others said she was justified in bringing attention to Aboriginal justice, an issue of national importance.

It was also noted by some that the senator is a serial* protester and her outrageous behaviour was just another act of shameless self-promotion in front of the world’s media. For me, it was the perfect topic for my daily cartoon.

The idea came to me pretty quickly; in fact, I had a light bulb moment while watching the event take place. We are all familiar now with the Indigenous ceremony that takes place before just about any public event these days, whether it be a football match, a school assembly or a council meeting. That is the “Welcome to Country” ceremony that is usually performed by a local tribal Elder and pays respect to and acknowledges Aboriginal connection to the land and their Elders past and present. No doubt there would be a special Welcome to Country for the visit of the King.

So in my cartoon, I thought I would have the controversial Senator Thorpe deliver it in her inimitable* style.

Lidia Thorpe is great to draw. I pictured her in her possum skin cloak, fist raised, shouting her demands, walking towards Charles and Camilla. The royal couple are seated in the foreground looking towards the approaching senator and the King leans towards his wife the Queen and says discreetly* exactly what I thought when I witnessed the protest take place: “I think we are about to get the unofficial Welcome to Country”.

Well, yes they did, in no uncertain terms, which reminded me of King Charles’ first experiences in Australia as a schoolboy at Timbertop when he had “the Pommy bits bashed out of him”. It seems to have happened again.

POLL

• GLOSSARY
• Pommy: slang term used by Australians and New Zealanders to refer to someone British
• formative: relating to formation, development, or growth, as in formative years of youth
• reigning: exercising sovereign power and authority
• monarch: ruling king or queen
• itinerary: detail plan of events
• bang for buck: good value
• genocide: acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group
• Reconciliation: strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples, for the benefit of all Australians
• head of state: the official leader of a country
• serial: repeat, doing the same thing over and over
• inimitable: unique, distinctive, individual
• discreetly: done carefully so as not to cause embarrassment or attract too much attention

EXTRA READING

Australian kids are fit for a king

Republic debate before royal tour

Reconciliation after the Voice vote

QUICK QUIZ

1. Where did a young Princes Charles go to school in Australia and in what year?
2. What’s the difference between this visit and all the others?
3. What is Charles recovering from?
4. Who usually performs a Welcome to Country and what does it acknowledge?
5. Who interrupted proceedings at Parliament House and why?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Values, identities and actions
Study today’s Mark Knight cartoon and answer the following questions about the work:

What values does this cartoon invite us to think about?

Who is this cartoon speaking about? And who is this work trying to speak to?

What actions might the viewpoint in the cartoon encourage?

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
How can cartoonists like Mark Knight encourage or change people’s opinions on a controversial subject or topic?

Do you think his work needs approval before going to print? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 10 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there for Senator Thorpe’s outburst during the event at Parliament House.

Create a conversation between two characters from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.