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27-10-2024
APIA: Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla flew out of Samoa on Saturday, after a visit in which the monarch acknowledged the Commonwealth’s “painful” history, amid a push for former colonial powers to pay reparations for their role in transatlantic slavery.
Representatives of 56 countries, most with roots in Britain’s empire, are attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that began in Samoa on Monday, with slavery and the threat of climate change emerging as major themes.
On Saturday, the meeting’s final day, Charles and Camilla left Samoa about 12 p.m. local time on a Royal Australia Air Force jet, waving farewell as they boarded the plane at Apia’s Faleolo International Airport.
Earlier, the royal pair attended a farewell ceremony at the village of Siumu, which took place in heavy rain.
On Friday, Charles said in a speech to the summit that he understood “from listening to people across the Commonwealth how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate”.
“It is vital, therefore, that we understand our history, to guide us towards making the right choices in future,” he said.
The push for ex-colonial powers such as Britain to pay reparations or make other amends for slavery and its legacies today has gained momentum worldwide, particularly among the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African Union.
Those opposed to reparations say countries should not be held responsible for historical wrongs, while those in support say the legacy of slavery has led to vast and persistent racial inequality.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is at the summit, has rejected calls for reparations and ruled out apologizing for the country’s historic role.
The King and Queen’s time in Samoa followed a six-day tour of Australia, where a large crowd turned out to see the royal couple at the Sydney Opera House. Charles also met with Indigenous elders in Sydney, after being heckled by an Indigenous senator in Canberra.
Britain’s King Charles was embraced by an Indigenous elder after a welcome smoking ceremony on Tuesday in the birthplace of Australia’s urban Aboriginal civil rights movement in Sydney, a day after being heckled by an Indigenous senator in Canberra.
Charles met Indigenous elders at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in inner-city Redfern, where he was embraced by elder Michael Welsh, and a woman introduced herself as a member of the Stolen Generation – a reference to Aboriginal children systematically removed from their families decades earlier. “Welcome to this country,” she said.
A day earlier, Charles was heckled at Parliament House in Canberra by independent senator and Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe who shouted that she did not accept his sovereignty over Australia, and demanded a treaty for Indigenous people.
The fallout from Thorpe’s outburst has been mixed, with some calling her brave and others disagreeing with her approach to reconciliation but it has put a fresh spotlight on Australia’s colonial history and its relationship with Indigenous peoples.
An Indigenous activist was arrested by police when he refused to comply with an order to move on at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday afternoon, where the monarch arrived later in the day.
In a statement, police said he was acting in an “abusive and threatening manner” while the atmosphere at Redfern on Tuesday was respectful, some people who came to see the king expressed sympathy for Thorpe’s actions. (Int’l News Desk)
