“She inherited much of what the monarchy was part of,and had done worldwide. Given that position,I think she did quite well to serve the Commonwealth,” Price said.

“I know many Aboriginal people who hold a deep respect for her and her position.

“When it comes to other colonisers around the world,I think we ended up in the best position possible in terms of the British coming to the shores. It could have been far more disastrous for Indigenous Australians had we been met with the Spanish or the Dutch or anybody else.”

Sunday’sproclamation ceremony in Canberra,when Governor-General David Hurley declared Charles III the King of Australia,included a smoking ceremony,Welcome to Country and Indigenous dance.

Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan said it was a pleasure,“in keeping with the general spirit of friendship and reconciliation”,to welcome those attending the ceremony.

“I was born under her rule right up until she passed,” Sheridan said.

“No matter what your views,Queen Elizabeth lived a life of service and she was also a loving wife,mother,grandmother and great-grandmother.

“King Charles III takes over from his mother and we know he will be thoughtful in his rule.”

Indigenous leader Professor Tom Calma,the University of Canberra’s chancellor,met the Queen during her last visit to Australia in 2011 and said he held “no hostility” toward her and respected her long-term reign.

He said her legacy should be viewed in the context that she came to the throne more than a century and a half after the British colonised Australia.

“She didn’t colonise. She inherited the predicament we were in. Australia had already been colonised on beliefs that terra nullius existed – it didn’t,and it was overturned in 1992 in the Mabo decision by the High Court,” Calma said.

He said the Queen’s death should spark a discussion about the nation’s future,including the prospect of another referendum on whether to become a republic.

“Our future is in our hands and we have to think seriously about it as a nation. And,if a referendum comes up for a republic again,Australia needs to consider it.”

Macquarie University Indigenous studies professor Sandy O’Sullivan said there was a deep complexity of emotion among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the Queen’s death.

“There are many[Indigenous Australians] who are very sad about the passing of the Queen,who felt she was important in their own agency. But the reality is that many others feel the monarchy was responsible for ongoing colonialism,” they said.

O’Sullivan said the monarchy had not done enough to recognise the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Australians or improve their plight.

“It was our land,and our land was used to develop these resources that built the British Empire. That has continued. It’s not like money was handed back or reparations were made. They weren’t.”

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