King Charles heads to Samoa as indigenious protester will get arrested in Sydney – stay

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”.

Samoa is hosting a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) which has the theme “One Resilient Common Future”.

The King is head of the Commonwealth and for the first time will preside over the gathering of presidents and prime ministers, and formally open the event which will be attended by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Charles deputised for Queen Elizabeth II during the last Chogm staged by Rwanda in 2022 and in Samoa will be joined by foreign secretary David Lammy.

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.

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.”

Esther Anatolitis, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state, said while thousands turned out to see the Charles and Camilla at their public engagements, the numbers were larger when his mother Queen Elizabeth II 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 a majority of 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 ends the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch in 13 years on Tuesday as anti-monarchists hope the debate surrounding his journey is a step toward an Australian citizen becoming head of state.

Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, watched dancers perform at a Sydney Indigenous community center.

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.

Charles’s trip to Australia was scaled down because he is undergoing cancer treatment.

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

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.

The royal visit was “a slap in the face to every decent Aboriginal person and fair-minded person in Australia that’s tried to make a go of their lives,” Mr Wharton told the AP after his arrest.

On Monday, Indigenous independent senator Lidia Thorpe yelled at Charles during a reception that he was not her king and Australia was not his land.Wharton said he backed Thorpe “absolutely 100 per cent”.

He had protested with a small group of demonstrators outside a Sydney church service the couple attended on Sunday under a banner “Empire Built on Genocide”.

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

The King and Queen will receive a formal welcome when they arrive in Samoa for a state visit.

Charles and Camilla will be greeted by the country’s prime minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mataafa when they step off their jet.

Nearby will be an honour guard formed by the Samoan Police Force, who will be stood to attention for their royal guests.

Samoa is hosting a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) which has the theme “One Resilient Common Future”.

The King is head of the Commonwealth and for the first time will preside over the gathering of presidents and prime ministers, and formally open the event which will be attended by Sir Keir Starmer.

Charles deputised for Queen Elizabeth II during the last Chogm staged by Rwanda in 2022, and in Samoa will be joined by foreign secretary David Lammy.

Australian senator Lidia Thorpe has made headlines around the world after denouncing King Charles following his Parliament House reception speech.

Lidia Thorpe, 51, accused the British monarchy of genocide in a fiery speech before telling Charles “you’re not my King” as he returned to his seat from a lectern in Canberra.

Ms Thorpe later told the BBC that she wanted to send “a clear message” to Charles. “To be sovereign you have to be of the land,” she said. “He is not of this land.”

Find out more about her background and activism here:

King Charles and Queen Camilla continued a longstanding royal tradition when they visited Government House on their Australian tour.

They took the opportunity to plant Eucalyptus trees in the garden, as has been done to mark every royal visit since 1985.