International desk: Indigenous leaders from a string of former British colonies on Thursday urged King Charles to swiftly apologise for \u2018centuries of racism\u2019 and the \u2018legacy of genocide\u2019 perpetrated by the crown.<\/p>\n
In a staunchly worded letter that could sour the build-up to this weekend\u2019s coronation, Indigenous representatives from 12 Commonwealth nations also called for financial reparations and the return of stolen cultural treasures.<\/p>\n
The letter was signed by leaders from Australia \u2014 where Indigenous people were massacred by British colonisers and forced off their lands \u2014 as well as several Caribbean nations once plundered for slaves.<\/p>\n
The group said they had banded together to help their people \u2018recover from centuries of racism, oppression, colonialism and slavery\u2019.<\/p>\n
Charles has in recent years stepped up efforts to engage with Indigenous leaders, as the monarchy faces a reckoning over its links to the slave trade and the British Empire\u2019s legacy of violence.<\/p>\n
Although he has conceded the crown must \u2018acknowledge the wrongs which have shaped our past\u2019, the letter implores him to go further by offering a formal, royal apology.<\/p>\n
Former Olympian Nova Peris, the first Aboriginal woman elected to Australia\u2019s federal parliament, was one of the leaders to sign the letter.<\/p>\n
A staunch critic of Australia\u2019s ties to the royal family, Peris said it was time to \u2018acknowledge the horrific and enduring impacts\u2019 of colonisation and the \u2018legacy of genocide\u2019 felt by many Indigenous populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International desk: Indigenous leaders from a string of former British colonies on Thursday urged King Charles to swiftly apologise for ‘centuries of racism’ and the ‘legacy of genocide’ perpetrated by the crown. In a staunchly worded letter that could sour the build-up to this weekend’s coronation, Indigenous representatives from 12 Commonwealth nations also called for financial reparations and the return of stolen cultural treasures. The letter was signed by leaders from Australia — where Indigenous people were massacred by British colonisers and forced off their lands — as well as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31039,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31037\/revisions\/31039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}