Credit:PA
Over in Australia Studio 10 presenter, Narelda Jacobs said the Royal Family was a “symbol of colonisation.”
She isn’t sure the modern British monarchy had done to make up for the wrongs of their ancestors.
“There was a great wrong that was done,” Jacobs said.
“Australia was settled without the consent of First Nations people that were here.”
“While the world has united in grief over the Queen’s passing, colonised people have also united over their trauma,’ she said.
“Because we know that in British museums are stolen artefacts. Stolen gems, diamonds. There are human remains that are sitting in British museums, even now. And there has been no acknowledgement of that, or apology for that.”
Many regarded Australians’ respect and affection for the late Queen Elizabeth II as the biggest obstacle to the country becoming a republic with its own head of state.
Now, after her death and with a pro-republic Labour Party government in power, Australia’s constitutional ties to the British monarchy will again be open to debate for the first time since change was rejected in a 1999 referendum.
During her long reign, the Queen connected with Australia in ways that no monarch before her had done.
In 1954, she became the only reigning British monarch to visit Australia. Such was her star power, an estimated 70% of Australia’s population turned out to see her during a punishing two-month itinerary that took her and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to 57 towns and cities spread across vast distances. She visited 16 times, the final time in 2011 when she was 85.
Her face is the only monarch to appear on Australian money since decimal currency was introduced in 1966, when Australian dollars and cents replaced British-style pounds, shillings and pence.
Related: WATCH: Anti-monarchy protesters BOO Proclamation of King Charles III
