King shares traditional greetings with Maori attendee at charity launch

The King has shared a traditional greeting gesture with a Maori advocate at the official launch of his environmental charity.

Charles, 76, shared a hongi – a traditional Maori greeting where two people press their noses together – with Mere Takoko, the co-founder of Pacific Whale Fund, at the launch of the King’s Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA).

Ms Takoko, whose organisation works to protect the ocean and marine life in the Pacific Ocean, hailed the shared gesture as “hugely symbolic”.

Wearing a blue kakahu, a traditional Maori garment, Ms Takoko attended St James’s Palace alongside dozens of other organisations, including fashion houses Brunello Cucinelli and Giorgio Armani, and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, to celebrate the CBA’s official launch.

The King’s organisation, which was first established in 2020 and became an officially registered charity in 2023, aims to support the global transition towards a “climate neutral economy”.

Speaking after she greeted the King, Ms Takoko, who came from Gisborne in the upper North Island of New Zealand, said it was “vitally important” for her to greet Charles.

“I came here in the spirit of reconciliation, friendship, and unity,” she said.

Talking about the late Maori King Tuheitia, who died in August this year, Ms Takoko said: “From the Maori king’s perspective, they enjoyed a very strong friendship and this legacy must be maintained.

“We are two peoples but bound together through the treaty of Waitangi, which his ancestors signed, and my ancestors signed.”

She added that she wanted to “continue to celebrate that relationship at a time which is quite divisive”.

Tens of thousands of people have been protesting outside New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington this week.

They oppose a controversial Bill seeking to reinterpret the country’s 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between British colonisers and Maori people, which many critics say is an attempt to take rights away from Maori people.

During the reception, Charles greeted the CBA’s founders and trustees in the Throne Room of St James’s Palace, before moving on to the Entree room to speak to attendees.

At one point, the King stopped to admire a pashmina produced by the fashion brand Brunello Cucinelli using fine wool from Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas that has been produced through regenerative farming.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” he said, touching the fabric.

Charles was also shown cotton grown in Puglia, southern Italy, to produce T-shirts made by Armani.

One of these T-shirts has been sent to the King as a gift, along with one of the pashminas.