Royal news live: King Charles drinks narcotic kava tea in Samoa ceremony ahead of slavery reparations debate

King Charles and Queen Camilla have left Australia for Samoa where the British monarch will address a Commonwealth summit and be given the title of high chief.

The couple are expected to be greeted by hundreds of people in the Pacific island nation which is holding its first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in capital Apia this week.

Preparations for the summit and the royal trip have been going on for months. Hotels have been renovated and roads and streets where the couple is expected to visit have been spruced up, reports my colleague Shweta Sharma.

King Charles should be prepared to show off his dance moves on his two-day whirlwind visit to Samoa.

Freddie Tuilagi made sure of that when he visited St James’ Palace recently wearing nothing but a bark cloth wrap and a necklace historically worn by orator chiefs.

Charles, in a blue suit and carefully knotted tie, grinned while gamely trying to follow along as Samoa’s honorary consul to the UK moved through the steps of a traditional dance.

“He loves it. He said he wants to learn the dance,” Tuilagi said afterward, showing off his moves once again.

Tuilagi, who moved to Britain to play professional rugby, said the 75-year-old king can expect more of the same when he arrives in the South Pacific Island nation on Wednesday.

The Pacific island of Niue has questioned why it was excluded from this week’s Commonwealth leaders meeting, with its prime minister calling for change.

Following its celebration of 50 years of self-government on Saturday, King Charles issued a congratulatory video.

Known informally as the Rock of Polynesia, Niue was settled by Samoans in 900AD and has a population of around 1,500.

Yet as Samoa hosts the 75th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where leaders and officials from 56 countries with roots in Britain’s empire are gathering in the Pacific for the first time, Niue, a realm of New Zealand, was not invited.

“There is no use being Commonwealth family yet we can’t attend these meetings. It’s a bit weird,” said prime minister Dalton Tagelagi in an interview.

“We have put through questions on how to become a member.”

The remote island, 635km (400 miles) south of Samoa, was sighted in 1774 by British explorer James Cook. He named it Savage Island, and Niue became a British Protectorate 126 years later.

The King and Queen have said they “can’t wait” to arrive in Samoa for a state visit and experience the “warmth” of the country’s ancient traditions.

Charles and Camilla ended their six-day tour of Australia and boarded a Royal Australian Air Force (Raaf) plane bound for the Polynesian nation.

Samoa’s prime minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mataafa will be waiting to greet the royal couple when they step off their jet for the final leg of their overseas trip.

Soon after the Raaf plane took off the couple posted a message on social media under their names.

They said: “As we head towards Apia, we can’t wait to visit Samoa for the first time together and to experience the warmth of ancient traditions with your remarkable people. Feiloa’i ma le manuia!

- Charles R & Camilla R”

The tweet included a few words in Samoan loosely translated as “looking forward to meeting the Samoan people”.

One of the most light-hearted moments from the Australian royal tour saw an alpaca sneeze on King Charles III as he greeted crowds on a walkabout in Canberra.

Owner Robert Fletcher brought nine-year-old alpaca Hefner to meet the monarch outside the Australian War Memorial.

Hefner was calmly waiting — wearing a crown and a gold bow tie — before leaving the King “in disbelief” with a sneeze after Charles stroked his nose.

Mr Fletcher said: “The King just looked in disbelief. But it’s just who Hefner is. He is an alpaca after all.

“He doesn’t bite and he doesn’t spit. He’s always on his best behaviour anyway.

“And he is a pro-monarchy alpaca.”

A prominent member of the Australian Republic Movement has pointed out that the late Queen Elizabeth II drew larger crowds on her first visit to the country as monarch than King Charles did.

Esther Anatolitis, co-chair, said while thousands turned out to see Charles and Camilla at their public engagements, the numbers were larger when his mother Elizabeth first visited Australia 70 years ago.

An estimated 75 per cent of Australia’s population saw the queen in person during the first visit by a reigning British monarch in 1954.

“It’s understandable that Australians would be welcoming the king and queen, we also welcome them,” Ms Anatolitis said.

“But it doesn’t make any sense to continue to have a head of state appointed by birth right from another country.”

Ms Anatolitis acknowledged that getting Australians in a majority of states to vote to change the constitution would be difficult. Australians haven’t changed their constitution since 1977.

King Charles completed the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch in 13 years on Tuesday.

Anti-monarchists are now hoping that the debate surrounding his visit will be a step toward an Australian citizen becoming head of state.

The King and his wife, Queen Camilla, watched dancers perform at a Sydney Indigenous community center as part of their packed schedule of engagements.

The couple used tongs to cook sausages at a community barbecue lunch at the central suburb of Parramatta and later shook the hands of well-wishers for the last time during their visit outside the Sydney Opera House.

Their final engagement was an inspection of navy ships on Sydney Harbor in an event known as a fleet review.

The trip was scaled down because of the King’s ongoing cancer treatment.

Indigenous activist Wayne Wharton, 60, was arrested outside the opera house yesterday before the royals greeted the crowd.

The monarch, 75, and his supporters were targeted by Mr Wharton who encouraged the crowds gathered at the Sydney Opera House to leave with the King.

“It will be alleged the man was acting in an abusive and threatening manner and had failed to comply with two previous move-on directions,” a police statement said.

He was charged with failing to comply with a police direction and will appear in court on 5 November.

Mr Wharton said he intended to serve Charles with a summons to appear in court on war crimes and for genocide but never got close to the couple.

King Charles will be offered the title of high chief in Samoa during his visit starting today.

The monarch is set to be shown the impact of rising sea levels due to climate change in the Pacific island nation.

Lenatai Victor Tamapua, a Samoan chief and member of parliament, said he planned to offer the title of ‘Tui Taumeasina’ to the monarch during a traditional ceremonial welcome to Charles and Queen Camilla tomorrow.

He will later lead Charles through a walkway on a mangrove reserve highlighting the impact of climate change on the Pacific nations and its communities.

“The king tide today is about twice that it was 20, 30 years ago, and that is affecting our land, and it’s eating away at some of the areas that are so hard for us to control, and people (have to) move inwards, inland now,” Mr Tamapua said.

Charles has spent a lifetime campaigning on environmental issues and in 2020 described global warming and climate change as the greatest threat that humanity has faced.