In the small village of Siumu, south of the capital Apia, locals have been busy cleaning the sides of the road and hoisting British flags as they prepare for a historic visit from King Charles III.
Bamboo has been planted on the roadside, coconuts and houses painted blue, white and red in the colours of the Samoan flag. Children will line the road to welcome the King and Queen Camilla to Siumu on Wednesday. School is on a semester break and more than 200 teachers have been pulled in to help prepare for the event.
Women have been perfecting a traditional dance to perform for the monarch, meeting every day for practice to ensure no mistakes. Among them is Sina Tuuu Schwenke, who says a chance to meet King Charles is a dream come true for her and the village of more than 2,000 people.
“Who doesn’t want to meet the king?” she says with a big smile.
“No one ever dreamed about the king coming to our village and knowing that he will be staying here is something that we take pride in and look forward to. This means a lot to us.”
Siumu village representative, Tofaeono Kitiona Tofaeono, says they plan to bestow a paramount chief title of Toa’iga o Tumua to the king, and hopes he will accept it. The title, the traditional name for the meeting ground for Siumu’s high chiefs, holds great importance to the village.
It will be the first visit by Charles to the Pacific country of about 230,000, where he will attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM).
The biennial meeting comes as the grouping of mostly former British colonies – 14 of whom have Charles as head of state – grapple with questions over its future relevance and modern profile. The king visited Australia ahead of his visit to Samoa, where he was heckled by an Indigenous Australian senator, who accused the crown of stealing Aboriginal land and told the visiting monarch “This is not your country”.
In Samoa meanwhile, most are hoping for a glimpse of the royal, such as 64-year-old Fuatino Muliagatele from Lefaga, who remembers the last royal visit in 1977.
“I might not be able to meet the king personally but knowing that he will be in Samoa is enough to boast about his presence here and everyone is excited about it,” she says.
Inside Samoa, the country is sometimes light-heartedly referred to as the ‘Land of Kings’ as many believe they are descendants of traditional royal families on the small island. Many people have been involved in preparations for the royal visit and the leaders’ meeting – and some government workers have been given time off to help.
Tomasi Sione lives roughly 30km from Siumu and this week he decided to return to the village to help with preparations. Sione says men from the village have been called in to reinforce evening curfews, as an extra security layer for the King and Queen when they arrive. Villages in Samoa often impose curfews around evening prayer times and late at night, when people are expected to be at home.
“We know the King has his own tight security with him and at the hotel but as a precautionary measure the village men will be patrolling the roads in the evening to keep an eye out for anything unusual,” Sione says.
“Our village is safe and peaceful, but we also know this is no small task to have the King here so if anything happens in our village it will also affect the image of our country,” he says.
In the two months ahead of CHOGM, Samoa’s police carried out a gun amnesty aimed at ensuring the safety of visiting leaders. Forty firearms and about 300 unlawful ammunitions were handed in, in exchange for a 100 tala ($36) food voucher and an assurance of no prosecution.
“Its important to show that we value having our foreign guests here and we want them to feel like they are at home and safe,” Sione says.
In the capital Apia, a mass cleanup has been under way for the past two weeks in preparation for the leader’s summit in which hundreds of public servants and locals have joined forces to sweep and clear the streets of rubbish.
For government worker Salome Tuivasa, it has been a learning experience.
“I now know the difference between the New Zealand flag from the Australian flag after putting up our village preparations and I can also identify about 20 countries flag from CHOGM,” says Tuivasa.
While Tuivasa says he’s “not too hyped up about the event” he is enjoying the week off and “will use the time wisely to plant some taro and banana.”
Another public servant, Linette Matautia, is pleased to be “welcoming the world to our home to our Pacific”.
“We do it for the love of our country. Most of us have never left Samoa to see the world and to play a small part in this event even if its just cleaning our beach means a lot. I’ll be showing the world how beautiful our island is,” Matautia says.
