King Charles Sips Traditional Narcotic Drink in Samoa as He's Made 'High Chief' in Special Ceremony

Mar. 15, 2025

King Charles and Queen Camilla during a Ava Ceremony in the Church Hall on Oct. 24, 2024 in Apia, Samoa.Photo:Victoria Jones - Pool/Getty

Victoria Jones - Pool/Getty

King Charlesgot into the island vibes in the Pacific as he started hisfirst full day in Samoa!

‘Ava is a key part of Pacific culture and isdescribed asa “peppery, slightly intoxicating root drink.” Known in other Pacific countries as kava, it plays an important role in rituals and celebrations of Pacific islanders. During her Silver Jubilee tour of the South Pacific in 1977, Queen Elizabeth also took part in the tradition, according toThe Sun.

King Charles attends an official Royal ‘Ava ceremonial’ welcome at the National University of Samoa on Oct. 24, 2024 in Apia, Samoa.Chris Jackson/Getty

Chris Jackson/Getty

Though King Charles took just a sip, drinking ‘ava or kava in large quantities can be harmful, like when Australia’s former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack “went cross-eyed” and had to be taken to the hospital after drinking an entire bowl of kava,The Guardianreported. (McCormack was specifically drinking the significantly stronger sakau strain of the drink.)

Charles and Camilla — who used a fan complete with her royal cipher to keep cool in the humidity — were then presented with garlands to wear. (The King’s was created from dried fruit of the pandanus tree and the Queen’s was made from flowers.)

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrive for their Samoa Cultural Village visit on Oct. 24, 2024 in Apia, Samoa.Chris Jackson/Getty

That same day, the King was made an honorary High Chief of Samoa at the ceremony in the small village of Moata’a, and the village chief Tofaeono Iupati Fuatai said the decision to honor the monarch in this way was a sign of respect to the traditions of the village’s forefathers.

“When you are given a title like this, it is a big honor," he said, per theTimes. “We hope that the King takes a small part of Samoa away with him. Once he has the title of Tui-Taumeasina we also become part of him, and he will be connected to our people and our lands forever."

Queen Camilla and King Charles in Apia, Samoa, on Oct. 24, 2024.Chris Jackson/Getty

The centerpiece of the visit to Samoa will be the opening of the the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on Friday Oct. 25, and traveling from the airport earlier, their motorcade passed through villages which were celebrating the event. Each one had adopted a different country of the 56-nation Commonwealth, with lawns decorated with the flags of the corresponding country, theBBCreported.

The state visit to Samoa followsfive days in Australiafor Charles and Camilla, 77.

The royal couple was also shown around Moata’a Village (pop. 1,420) to gain a sense of village life, which is said to be central to the fa’a Samoa (the “Samoan Way”) — focusing on family, church and duty.

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King Charles and Queen Camilla attend an official Royal ‘Ava ceremonial’ welcome at the National University of Samoa on Oct. 24, 2024 in Apia, Samoa.Chris Jackson/Getty

Later, Charles was taken on a walk through an area where mangroves are being protected in Moata’a Village. Mangroves provide vital nurseries for many fish and invertebrate species and produce wood for fuel and bark, used in clothing dyes, for the local villages. But they are vulnerable to environmental degradation and human development.

Camilla, meanwhile, was taken to Moata’a Village’s aoga faifeau (or pastor school), where she listened to the children singing traditional songs and watched a literacy activity focused around traditional story-telling techniques. Camilla is a champion of literacy in young children and adults in the U.K. and around the world.

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Queen Camilla talking at an event tackling violence against women and girls on Oct. 24, 2024 in Samoa.Ian Vogler-Pool/Getty

Ian Vogler-Pool/Getty

source: people.com