Robert Alan Thorpe is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

activist and presenter of ''Fire First'', a program on community radio station 3CR in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Early life and family

Thorpe is from the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai Nation and is the uncle of Senator

Lidia Thorpe Lidia Alma Thorpe (born 18 August 1973) is an Aboriginal Australian ( Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung) independent politician. She has been a senator for Victoria since 2020 and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state. She was ...

Activism

Thorpe has campaigned for

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

solutions in Australia since the 1970s. He is an advocate for Pay The Rent, an Indigenous initiative set up to provide an independent economic resource for Aboriginal peoples, and the Aboriginal Passport initiative. Inspired by Bruce McGuinness' newspaper ''The Koorier'' (1968–1971), Thorpe founded and ran the publication ''The Koorier 2''PDF
/ref> during the 1970s and 1980s, and later ''The Koorier 3'', published by the Koori Information Centre. In 1982, Thorpe challenged the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the sixth-largest country in ...

in a case entitled ''Thorpe V Commonwealth'' for not protecting people from crimes connected to

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

. Since 2020, Robbie has been working on a court case to charge

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

for crimes against humanity. Amid allegations that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, Thorpe brought a

private prosecution A private prosecution is a criminal proceeding initiated by an individual private citizen or private organisation (such as a prosecution association) instead of by a public prosecutor who represents the state. Private prosecutions are allowed in ...

against Australian-Israeli diplomat

Mark Regev Mark Regev (; born 1960) is an Australian-Israeli diplomat, government advisor and civil servant. Between June 2020 and April 2021, he served as the Prime Minister's Senior Advisor for Foreign Affairs and International Communications. From 2016 ...

in 2024. Thorpe accused Regev of "advocating genocide", a crime included in section 80.2D of the Australian Criminal Code. Regev was served in Israel with a Hebrew copy of the charge sheet. The charge was based on remarks Regev made during a radio interview on 10 October 2023, in which he advocated for Israel to cut off the supply of essentials such as food, water and electricity to Gaza. Lawyers for the Israeli government contacted the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and formally requested the dismissal of the case. On 10 December, the DPP's office formally took over the case and withdrew the charges against Regev, a decision which Thorpe said he would appeal.

Radio and film

Robbie initiated the 3CR's ''Fire First'' program with Clare Land, after appearing on her ''Tuesday Breakfast'' program with his comrade Fantom. Between 2005 and 2006, ''Fire First'' supported and fed into the Black GST (Genocide, Sovereignty, Treaty) Collective,. a campaign to end genocide, recognise Australian Aboriginal Sovereignty and make

Treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

, that protested at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

. In 2006, ''Fire First'' presented several live broadcasts and a daily update from Camp Sovereignty. Thorpe has produced numerous videos to support campaigns and campaigners, including advice videos for pro-Indigenous white activists in Australia with fellow activist

Gary Foley Gary Edward Foley (born 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbaynggirr people, academic, writer and actor. He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Ab ...

. These videos are aimed at non-Indigenous people seeking to act in solidarity with

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

peoples. Thorpe's speeches and interviews are frequently captured on news and for activist films and he has starred in

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

videos and other creative productions. , Thorpe's own story is being captured in a new

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

, directed and produced by Anthony Kelly, entitled ''Our Warrior: The Story of Robbie Thorpe''.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorpe, Robbie Living people Australian radio presenters 20th-century births Gunaikurnai people