King Charles and Queen Camilla have returned to England after a visit to Samoa and Australia.
The King spoke at a summit of Commonwealth leaders last week in Samoa’s capital. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting takes place every two years and is hosted by different member countries on a rotating basis.
It was the first summit held in the Pacific Islands, and Charles’s first time attending the gathering since taking the throne.
Some leaders at the meeting had hoped that Charles might use his address to apologize for Britain’s colonial past and have a discussion on reparations with African and Caribbean nations. Charles acknowledged their concerns, but did not engage with the issue.
The King and Queen’s time in Samoa followed a six-day tour of Australia.
During a visit to Australia’s parliament, Charles was heckled by an Indigenous senator.
Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers took Indigenous land and bones.
As she was ushered from the hall, Thorpe yelled, “This is not your land. You are not my king.”
No treaty was ever reached between British colonizers and Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
