Young Australians are divided in their support of the monarchy, with some saying the death of Queen Elizabeth II is a tragic reminder of the stability the royals offer, while others see the British monarchy as a symbol of the country’s dark colonial past.
Julie Youssef, 25, lives in Melbourne and is of Egyptian descent. She says the Queen symbolises the pillaging of her cultural heritage.
“Everything the Queen represents, irrespective of the personal attributes she held in terms of being a nice old lady, is the legacy of violence and colonialism across the globe that has touched the majority of people in some way or the other,” Youssef says.
She points to the Egyptian artefacts that were stolen by the British government and still held as a key example of continuous colonialism under the Queen’s reign.
She says Australia is still grappling with its colonial past and the inequality it created between settlers and First Nations people.
She believes people trying to shut down the republic debate now are doing so not out of respect for the Queen but because it’s a debate they never wanted to have.
“Whenever this discussion has arisen in the past it’s been in the context of ‘we’ll wait for the Queen to die because she’s an important historical person’ and now she has died it’s still the same rhetoric of ‘its not time’. When will it be the time?”
Alessandro Rosini, 21, spent Sunday in Canberra watching the formal proclamation of King Charles III before travelling to Brisbane to be part of the first Australian rendition of God Save the King.
“Her Majesty the Queen served Australia for over 70 years as head of state and she did an exceptional job. Her son and heir will do just as good of a job.”
Rosini, who is a member of the Australian Monarchist League, says the organisation is growing steadily with people under 30 – they have just opened a youth chapter in Western Australia and will soon start one in South Australia and Tasmania.
“The Monarchist League has 52,000 supporters and of them, 40% are aged under 40 with many young Australians under 20 forming part of it,” he says. “They support our system, they don’t like the idea of a politician as president. There’s a love and affection, particularly for the King, and his dedication and promise to serve.”
Morgan, 31, who uses they/them pronouns, believes the monarchy is “an outdated power structure”.
“They’re like a cultural relic … realistically they’re a living version of things like the crown jewels, they’re cultural artefacts,” they said.
Jack Barton, 23, is the chairperson of the University of Queensland’s Monarchist League. Barton has both settler and First Nations heritage – his father’s side is descended from the Yugambeh people of south-east Queensland and the Torres Strait, while his mother’s family immigrated from London in the 1970s.
Barton says he recognises the pain and suffering colonialism bought to this country but does not blame the monarchy.
“It was King George III that said that if any natives were encountered to make peace with them,” Barton says.
“Queen Elizabeth was a great decoloniser, she supported nations to decolonise, she encouraged people and nations to find their own way. We can appreciate her for that.”
Barton says young people could find similarities with the new King.
“He was an environmentalist long before it was cool. He’s a supporter of the environment and the arts … He’s a forward-looking King.”
Barton says what mostly drives him to support the monarchy is fear of political instability.
“There’s no better example than in America with the Trump situation. It’s neighbour pitted against neighbour,” he says.
Alistair Kitchen, 30, is from the Gold Coast but now lives in New York. He says the older he gets, the more he cares about the issue.
“I used to not care about the monarchy question, but the older I get the more I think something has gone very, very wrong with any society that elevates one family above everyone else,” Kitchen says.
He says having a monarch in place “twists” democracy as it is inherently unequal.
“Australians are supposed to be egalitarians – where’s our self-respect?
“What I want from the future is a genuine commitment to egalitarianism – political equality expressed via economic equality.”
