King Charles Sips Traditional Narcotic ‘Ava Drink in Samoa

King Charles got into the island vibes in the Pacific as he started his first full day in Samoa!

Charles, 75, wore a white bush jacket trimmed with embroidery by the Samoan School of Fine Art as he and Queen Camilla — also dressed in all-white — were welcomed to the island state on Thursday, Oct. 24.

Charles was handed a special ‘ava drink as part of a spectacular ceremony. Taking the coconut shell containing the mildly narcotic ‘ava drink, created by meticulous pounding of the root into a fine powder before it is mixed with water, he poured some onto the ground, as is traditional, and then took a sip. The drink is a symbol of community and connection, Buckingham Palace said.

‘Ava is a key part of Pacific culture and is described as a “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 to The Sun.

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 Guardian reported. (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.)

The special ceremony — held at the National University of Samoa and hosted by Head of State of the Independent State of Samoa, Le Afioga ia Tuimaleali’ifano Va’aleto’a Sualauvi II — is reserved only for monarchs.

The royal couple were offered gifts including a hand-woven fabric and a whole pig, which was wrapped and carried to them on a wooden platform by four chiefs. It will be returned to the village, the home of Samoa’s head of state, for local families to eat, The Telegraph reported. 

Men, dressed in ‘ai lavalava’ skirts and necklaces, heralded the couple by blowing in conch shells.

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 the Times. “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.”

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, the BBC reported.

The state visit to Samoa follows five days in Australia for 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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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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The Queen also spoke at a high-level CHOGM event aimed at highlighting the ongoing campaign to tackle violence against women and girls — a commitment Camilla has made both at home and abroad. Moderated by the Founder of Women of the World Foundation, Jude Kelly, the CHOGM side-event was one of a series that have been taking place across the Commonwealth to engender more effective collaboration between governments, leaders in civil society and the private sector to confront the issue.