Series 2 Episode 19: Robbie Thorpe "The Voice To Parliament" Special #12

The Alec Doomadgee Chronicles

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

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

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 and the Aboriginal Passport initiative.

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

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.

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, that protested at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. In 2006, Fire First presented several live broadcasts and a daily update from Camp Sovereignty.
In 2017 Robbie Thorpe took delegate from Victory to attend the Uluru dialogue to discuss the "Uluru Statement From The Heart" and "Voice" to Parliament. The Vic representatives were sent with a mandate of TREATY FIRST!! They were kicked out of the meeting.

Featuring music from Warumpi Band: "Gotta Be Strong"