Robert (Robbie) Thorpe

Robert "Robbie" Thorpe is an Aboriginal Australian activist and presenter of Fire First, a program on community radio station 3CR in Melbourne.

Colour photo of Robbie Thorpe wearing a cap, a wrap around his body and sash coloured black, gold and red.
Photo of Robbie Thorpe

Early life and family

Thorpe is from the Krautungalung people of the Gunnai Nation[1] and is uncle of Senator Lidia Thorpe.[2][3]

Activism

Thorpe has campaigned for Indigenous 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,[1] and the Aboriginal Passport initiative.[2]

Inspired by Bruce McGuinness' newspaper The Koorier (1968–1971), Thorpe founded and ran the publication The Koorier 2[4] during the 1970s and 1980s,[5] and later The Koorier 3, published by the Koori Information Centre.[6]

In 1982, Thorpe challenged the Commonwealth of Australia in a case entitled Thorpe V Commonwealth for not protecting people from crimes connected to genocide. Since 2020, Robbie has been working on a court case to charge the Crown for crimes against humanity.[2]

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,.[7] a campaign to end genocide, recognise Australian Aboriginal Sovereignty and make Treaty, that protested at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.[3] In 2006, Fire First presented several live broadcasts and a daily update from Camp Sovereignty.[7]

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. These videos are aimed at non-Indigenous people seeking to act in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.[8]

Thorpe's speeches and interviews are frequently captured on news and for activist films and he has starred in hip hop videos and other creative productions.[9]

As of August 2022 Thorpe's own story is being captured in a new documentary film, directed and produced by Anthony Kelly, entitled Our Warrior: The Story of Robbie Thorpe.[10]

References
  1. "Robbie Thorpe". The Wheeler Centre. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  2. "'Black Lives Matter' in Australia: The perennial question of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody - Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies - Research at Kent". Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies. 2 February 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  3. Latimore, Jack (23 April 2022). "'Shouty, uninformed, ineffective': How Senator Lidia Thorpe annoys the establishment". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  4. Burrows, Elizabeth Anne (2010). Writing to be heard: the Indigenous print media's role in establishing and developing an Indigenous public sphere (PhD). Griffith University. pp. 126–128. doi:10.25904/1912/3292. Retrieved 30 September 2022. PDF
  5. Rolls, Mitchell; Johnson, Murray (2011). "Historical Dictionary Of Australian Aborigines". Scarecrow Press. Retrieved 30 September 2022 – via E-book library.
  6. Rose, M. (2020). For the Record: 160 years of Aboriginal print journalism. Taylor & Francis. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-000-31940-8. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  7. "Bunjil's Fire". 3CR Community Radio. 28 October 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  8. "Advice for pro-Indigenous white activists in Australia". The Commons. 12 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  9. Minestrelli, Chiara (26 October 2016). Australian Indigenous Hip Hop: The Politics of Culture, Identity, and Spirituality. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-21754-1.
  10. "Our Warrior: The story of Robbie Thorpe". Documentary Australia. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
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