Katrina Ngaityalya Power: Welcome to Country goes off the rails as Indigenous leader launches astonishing spray over the Voice before telling crowd they are on ‘stolen land’
An Aboriginal elder launched a stunning attack on those who voted no in the Voice referendum while delivering a Welcome to Country speech at a business event.
Katrina Ngaityalya Power stunned more than 400 guests at a South Australian breakfast meeting on industry, innovation and science on Wednesday by telling them they were on ‘stolen’ land.
After a round of applause as she made her way to the stage at the Adelaide Convention Centre, Ms Power said she “deserved” a better clap, the Advertiser reported.
In a reference to the scale of the Voice referendum defeat, from about 61 percent to 39 percent, she said that “seven in 10 of you” didn’t want her to “have a voice.”
The Kaurna woman also called for the ‘dethronement’ of King Charles, claiming she could ‘understand’ what it was like for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Katrina Ngaityalya Power (pictured) stunned more than 400 guests at a South Australian breakfast meeting on industry, innovation and science by telling them they were on ‘stolen’ land
Liberal state MP Ben Hood, who was at the meeting, said it was “inappropriate for this type of highly political commentary to take place at a taxpayer-funded event.”
He added that it was “a huge shock that it was warmly welcomed and supported by Labor Ministers (Prime Minister Peter) Malinauskas.”
It wasn’t the first time Ms Power has made headlines for her controversial views.
In 2017, she made a reference to Indigenous “slavery” during her “welcome speech” at an Anzac Day morning service in Adelaide.
She also changed the words of Psalm 23 to include the phrase “walk through the valley of invasion,” which some service veterans called “offensive and disrespectful.”
After being cheered as she took the stage at the Adelaide Convention Center, Ms Power (pictured) said she ‘deserved’ a better clap
Ms Power made headlines again on International Women’s Day on March 8, 2018, when she called then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ‘Malcolm Cows***’.
She refused to apologize at the time, saying: “I’m not sorry at all and if the Prime Minister of Australia wants an apology he can wait 220 years.”
A South Australian government spokesperson said of Ms Power’s latest controversy: ‘In our liberal democracy, people are free to express their views.
“The government does not script or investigate the comments of people who say a Welcome to Country at government events.”