Indigenous Leaders Demand Apology, Reparations From King Charles
On Friday, the eve of King Charles' coronation, 12 Indigenous advocacy groups from former British colonies signed a letter demanding the new king "acknowledge the horrific impacts on and legacy of genocide and colonization.”
Facts
- On Friday, the eve of King Charles' coronation, 12 Indigenous advocacy groups from former British colonies signed a letter demanding the new king "acknowledge the horrific impacts on and legacy of genocide and colonization.”1
- The letter, whose signatories included Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, New Zealand, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, and Canada, also called for the UK to begin the process of reparations. They also called for the UK to return stolen artifacts and human remains kept in museums and archives.2
- Calls for returning artifacts come as a 2016-2019 joint study between the Australian National University and the British Museum found roughly 38.4K Indigenous Australian objects in institutions across the UK and approximately 600 located in Ireland.1
- Descendants of some of Britain's wealthiest slaveholders, such as King Charles' second cousin, the Earl of Harewood, have called on the UK government to apologize and atone for the country's historical links to slavery.3
- The monarchy in April said it was cooperating with an independent investigation into its connections to slavery.3
Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2The Telegraph, and 3CBS.
Narratives
- Left narrative, as provided by BBC News. British leaders must apologize and pay reparations for the country’s brutal history. The Atlantic slave trade saw more than a million Africans forced into labor beginning around the year 1500, and the UK didn't abolish the practice until 1833. This is a matter of how the monarchy should compensate millions of Indigenous peoples, not whether it should.
- Right narrative, as provided by The Telegraph. The idea of any country paying reparations is absurd. If commonwealth countries must pay money to Caribbean islands, then Norway and Sweden should pay Britons for the actions of their Viking ancestors. Instead of acting like Britain today is the Britain of 300 years ago, it’s time to move on as every other generation has. Not framing within a historical context is bankrupt woke ideology.
