Is Mise,

Lidia Thorpe is a proud Gunnai Gunditjmara Djab Wurrung
woman. There are only seven clans left. There used to be 70.
She is a Senator for Victoria, a Deputy Leader in the Senate.
She comes from a long line of strong black women who
taught her to stand up for what's right and never let
injustice and racism beat you down.

The Thorpe name is well known in the Aboriginal community.
Her grandmother Alma Thorpe was a renowned community
organiser who played a role in the Aboriginal Tent Embassy
in 1972 and founded the first Aboriginal Health Service
in Victoria in 1973, the year Lidia was born.

Lidia's mother is Majorie Thorpe a pre-selected Greens
federal candidate for Gippsland. In the 90s, Marjorie was
a co-commissioner for the "Bringing Them Home Stolen
Generations" inquiey and later a member of the Council
for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

Most recently Majorie was involved in the effort
to stop the destruction of culturally contested trees
on Djab Wurrung Country in Victoria's Western District.

Lidia's uncle is Robbie Thorpe, who's closely linked to
the struggle for Aboriginal self-determination.

So perhaps now you will understand why retaining the
Thorpe name means so much. Lidia had no choice in being
influenced by her black activist family and the black
struggle of her people. She was born into it and she doesn't
know anything else.

As I told mhaze, We can't solve our problems with the same
thinking we used when we created them.

Think higher, feel deeper.

Foxy,

Nothing to say about obtaining money under false pretences?
Nothing to say about perjury?

Thorpe is a dyed in the wool pommy name, one would think that any Aboriginal activist, who doesn’t recognize Australia would have gotten rid of it long ago.

Contrast Thorpe with Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker), she was an Aboriginal activist, a poet, an author and a lady and I was proud to call her my friend.
She worked tirelessly for her people and was proud to be an Aboriginal and an Australian, she never hesitated to swear allegiance to King and Country and served in the AWAS in WWII,
Her two brothers also served and saw active service ln Malaya before spending the rest of the war as prisoners of the Japanese.

Is Mise,

There are many Aboriginal activists who see no need
to change their names and have their own reasons for
keeping the family name. You're thinking from a
white-man's point of view.

I am familiar with Kath Walker. I know her poetry.
BTW - she changed her name to Oodgeroo of the
Noonuccal tribe in protest of the Australian
Bicentennial celebration. In the same year she
returned her MBE to the Queensland Governor
stating that Aboriginal Australians had very
little to celebrate.

Foxy
so ?

How about the false pretences and perjury?

All this because she swore an other to the queen who lives on the other side of the planet?
And because she stands with aboriginals?

I don't like Lidia Thorpe or her attitude, but some of you lot are acting like kindy kids.

I doubt whether even half of this country would stand with the Queens interests ahead of Australia's interests if forced to choose between the two.
This whole thing is pretty silly.

Is Mise,

I am in no position to judge Lidia Thorpe.
I am from a totally different background
with totally different experiences. I cannot
begin to imagine what her people have gone
through and what they have experienced.
Therefore I am in no position to judge her
behaviour. All I can do is try to understand
and support what she is trying to achieve
for her people and for her electorate.

I suggest that you as a white man try to do
the same.