Reportedly king Charles III took part in a traditional kava-drinking ceremony before a line of bare-chested, heavily tattooed Samoans and was declared a “high chief” of the one-time Pacific island colony Thursday. The british monarch is on an 11day tour of australia and Samoa, both independent Commonwealth states the first major foreign trip since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year. Wearing a white safari-style suit, the 75 year old king sat at the head of a carved timber longhouse where he was presented with a polished half-coconut filled with a narcotic kava brew.
Perhaps the peppery, slightly intoxicating root drink is a key part of Pacific culture and is known locally as “ava”. The kava roots were paraded around the marquee, prepared by the chief’s daughter and filtered through a sieve made of dried bark. Once ready, a Samoan man screamed as he decanted the drink, which was finally presented to the king. Charles uttered the words: “May god Bless this ava” before lifting it to his lips. Charles’s wife, queen Camilla sat beside him, fanning herself to ease the stiffing tropical humidity.
Moreover Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change Ralph Regenvanu called on other nations to join the treaty. He said “As a Commonwealth family, we look to those that dominate fossil fuel production in the Commonwealth to stop the expansion of fossil fuels in order to protect what we love and hold dear here in the Pacific”.
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