When independent senator Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of Canberra's Parliament House after confronting King Charles III, some First Nations people were emotional with pride while others were questioning the accuracy of some of her claims.

Wearing a traditional fur cloak, Senator Thorpe shouted to the monarch "you are not our king" and "this is not your land", as he sat on stage a few metres away.

It was a moment Wiradjuri Badu activist Lynda-June Coe, a former Greens candidate, will remember forever.

"We have never witnessed a senator, or a member of parliament take this position in terms of confronting the head of state for crimes committed against our people," Ms Coe told the ABC.

"Lidia really embodies what the modern-day warrior actually is about … never wavering from those issues on treaty, truth-telling, but more importantly, sovereignty and self-determination.

'F*** the colony'

Didgeridoos and clap sticks accompanied Charles and Camilla as they entered the Great Hall of Parliament House in Canberra while the Australian anthem was sung in English and Ngunnawal.

Senator Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, turned her back while a youth choir performed the anthem.

King Charles was addressing a crowd of parliamentarians, governors and special guests.

"Throughout my life, Australia's First Nations peoples have done me the great honour of sharing so generously their stories and cultures," Charles said.

It was at the end of his speech, after he said he had been shaped and strengthened by "traditional wisdom" and spoke about the "warmth" of Australians, Senator Thorpe moved into the aisle and voiced her concerns.

"You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people," she directed at the stage, where the royals sat next to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

"Give us a treaty, we want treaty … F*** the colony."

Professor Tom Calma, a Kungarakan elder and member of the Iwaidja people, was in the room and said it was not King Charles's role to negotiate a treaty with First Nations Australians.

"If anybody analyses what she said, it's not really accurate," he said, adding that any treaty would be between the commonwealth government and First Nations Australians.

"Treaties aren't given by the crown, they might have been at the early stages of colonisation, but not anymore.

"Politicians should understand how we're governed and who has what responsibility.

"It just highlights that we need to put a lot more effort into — we as a nation — into civics education."

Mr Calma, the co-chair of Reconciliation Australia, said the process of repatriating precious Aboriginal artefacts from Britain was underway.

These included the "Gweagal spears", stolen by Captain James Cook and his crew, that were recently handed back to the La Perouse Aboriginal Community by Cambridge University.

'Not all of us'

Senator Thorpe's message to the British monarch was "deeply disappointing", "embarrassing" and "disrespectful", according to former senator and the first Aboriginal woman in the Australian Parliament Nova Peris.

She said Senator Thorpe did not represent all of First Nations Australians.

Ms Peris, who supports Australia breaking ties with the monarchy and becoming a republic, reminded her followers on X that, in 2022, Senator Thorpe affirmed allegiance to the crown during her swearing-in ceremony, as required by Section 42 of the Australian Constitution.

"Regardless of personal beliefs, respecting our nation's constitutional framework is essential, especially as an elected representative," she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"If Senator Thorpe was not on board with this, she should not have accepted her position and made her affirmation in the first place."

'Returning to the scene of the crime.'

In addition to advocating Indigenous sovereignty, the independent senator has continuously called for a treaty. She opposed the Voice to Parliament, championing the need for truth-telling processes to happen before the referendum, which ultimately failed.

The monarchy has left a complex legacy for some First Nations people.

King Charles's direct ancestors include King Edward VII and King George V.

It was their Australian representative, the governor-general, who signed off on policy — such as the Northern Territory Aboriginals Act — that gave the government power to remove First Nations children from their families.

And the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 in New South Wales, was enacted by "the King's Most Excellent Majesty", and the 1915 amendment that gave the government power to remove any child, at any time and for any reason.

There remain many diverse views on the royal family's role in colonisation.

Sissy Austin, who has spent time working with Senator Thorpe, was impressed to see a fellow Gunditjmara woman on the world stage.

"With all what's going on in the world, to have the BBC reporting on First Nations people in this country standing up for ourselves, it's something that the country, you know, should celebrate, but probably won't," she told the ABC.

"But us mob certainly will."

Ms Austin called Senator Thorpe's actions "brave" and hoped the world press would spotlight "what the generations before us have gone through at the hands of the monarchy."

"How would you expect a victim of a crime to react when the perpetrator is invited back to the scene of the crime and sitting up there being celebrated by the country.

"I'm not surprised in what Senator Thorpe and many Aboriginal people across the country are doing right now in response to the king's visit to our land."

Royal visit 'a kick in the guts'

Ms Coe agreed and described the royal visit as a "kick in the guts' to First Nations people dealing with continuing deaths in custody, Aboriginal children being removed from their families, the desecration of sacred sites.

"What she (Senator Thorpe) has done is really brought home a message to the commonwealth that we remain an unceded, sovereign people," she said. "We are surviving a regime of extermination that is built upon stolen land," she said.

There was a similar sentiment on the streets of Redfern — the Indigenous heart of Sydney.

Thomas, an Aboriginal man, told the ABC he was appreciative of the senator's actions on Monday.

"It very ballsy from her," he said of the protest.

"She wants to stick her neck out, go right ahead, good on her I love what she said,

"Any little thing that helps … it's any publicity is good publicity… do whatever you have to."

Speaking to Radio National on Tuesday morning, Senator Thorpe said "I've written to the king a number of times. He's ignored me every time I wanted to have a respectful conversation and meeting about the plight of our people and what we want, what my old people have told me all of my life, and that wasn't afforded to me."

"I did that for my people. I did that for my grandmother, and I wanted the world to know that we need a treaty here.

"I wanted the world to know the plight of our people in this country, we are Australia's little secret that doesn't get talked about."