An Australian lawmaker wanted the Senate to "acknowledge the terrible impact immigration would have on the Sentinelese people". (Photos: Indian Coast Guard and Twitter/Pauline Hanson)

The ancient tribespeople who call India's North Sentinel Island home are known to greet visitors with arrows. One Australian politician calls it a "strict zero-gross immigration policy".

And she wants her country to help protect it.

Meet Pauline Hanson, a lawmaker representing Queensland in Australia's parliament. A report in the Washington Post says she's tried to keep Muslim and Asian immigrants out of Australia, and recently "threatened to kick a 9-year-old aboriginal girl who refused to stand for the national anthem".

The Sentinelese people of the westen Andamans recently killed an American missionary, John Allen Chau, and buried him on a beach in their small, remote island. Yesteday, Hanson announced she would ask the Australian Senate to "acknowledge the terrible impact immigration would have on the Sentinelese people," and support the tribe's desire to protect their way of live by enforcing their "immigration" policy. (Chau was trying to spread Christianity on North Sentinel Island.)

Will the Senate support the proud Sentinelese people in their desire to protect their way of life through the enforcement of strong border protections? Or will the Senate condemn them for their "intolerant immigration policies" & "lack of diversity"? We'll have to wait & see! -PH pic.twitter.com/nb8Qk0jPsN Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) November 26, 2018

And here's what Hanson said in parliament, according to the Post: "I for one will not be condemning the Sentinelese as racist for keeping their borders closed, nor will I condemn them for their lack of diversity".

But it wasn't to be. Hanson's motion was not successful.

@PaulineHansonOz gave a short statement after the Government denied a vote in support of the Sentinelse people's strict immigration policy, saying "all peoples should have a right to decide their own fate and I’m disappointed the Senate refused to join me in acknowledging this." pic.twitter.com/p7FdTpAsqn Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) November 27, 2018

"It is frankly hypocritical for her to pretend to be sticking up for people like the Sentinelese, given her record of victimising and degrading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia," Senator Nick McKim was quoted as saying in Australian news reports.

Meanwhile, authorities in India have struggled to figure out how to retrieve Chau's remains from North Sentinel Island. The police say they have mapped the area of the island. (Is it possible to befriend the Sentinelese? One man did.)

The Sentinelese are hunter-gatherers thought to have migrated from Africa 50,000 years ago. They use spears and bows and arrows to hunt animals, and gather plants to eat and to fashion into homes.

READ | Kidnappings once happened on Andaman island where John Chau died. What happened next

But before they can even attempt to recover Chau's body, authorities have to learn from experts "the nuances of the [Sentinelese people's] conduct and behavior, particularly in this kind of violent behavior," said Dependra Pathak, the police chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Inputs from AP

WATCH | Did John Allen Chau have any business going to the Sentinel Island?