King Charles Commemorates 40th Anniversary of Uluru Handback

Charles and Princess Diana visited the historic site during their royal tour of Australia in 1983.

Forty years ago, the Australian government returned the title deeds for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to the Anangu people.

Today, King Charles celebrated the anniversary of the “Handback,” as it is called, at London’s Australia House. He and Princess Diana visited Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) during their royal visit of Australia in 1983, just two years before the park was returned to its original residents.

In the past, when I was young, the Queen and the King before her, they did have ownership of Australia,” Alison Carroll, a representative of the Anangu people, said in London today. “But now, we’re in the process of saying, some of the lands has to come back to Aboriginal peoples, and that needs to be given back in a process of, you know, a sense of ownership where we belong.” Carroll and her cohort said they would like King Charles to come visit Uluru again.

Last year, during a visit to Canberra, King Charles emphasized the importance of uplifting Indigenous peoples and Indigenous culture. “It is in all our interests to be good stewards of the world, and good ancestors to those who come after us because we are all connected – both as a global community, and with all that sustains life,” he said. “That is the timeless wisdom of Indigenous people throughout the world, from which each of us can benefit.”

The speech made headlines not for Charles’s remarks, however, but for a protest by independent senator Lidia Thorpe who interrupted the event, saying, “You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” she said. “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. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want treaty.”