Meghan performed a hongi with Kiwi guests. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan performed a hongi with Kiwi guests. Photo / Getty Images
The Duchess of Sussex took part in a Māori hongi during her first solo royal event on Tuesday. And it looks like she found the engagement slightly amusing.
Leaning in to partake in the traditional greeting, Markle was snapped making an odd expression as she met with Kiwi guests at the opening of "Oceania" at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Meghan moves in to share a hongi. Photo / Getty Images
But she managed to compose herself along the way, as she met with Kiwi guests at the opening of "Oceania" at the Royal Academy of Arts including New Zealand's high commissioner Sir Jerry Mateparae and his wife Janine.
Just before she left, she did the same again with performers from Ngati Ranana, the London Māori Club, who had entertained the royal party with a waiata, according to the Daily Mail
Despite the Duchess' giggles, this was not her first hongi. In April this year she attended a dawn service on Anzac Day in London with her husband, Prince Harry.
Meghan took time to speak with Kiwi artists. Photo / Getty Images
While given a tour of the exhibit Meghan viewed many of the 200 artefacts on show at the exhibition and told New Zealand video artist Lisa Reihani "It's so special. It's spectacular."
The Duchess said it was a perfect introduction to the region she and Harry will be visiting next month.
"It's a great introduction to the sights and sounds of that part of the world," she added.
Meghan took time to speak with guests and artists. Photo / Getty Images
Earlier, when Meghan first arrived she practised her hongi when she was shown a large artwork by four female New Zealand women - a blue tarpaulin woven into a large cloth that symbolised a rising wave.
Some of the group, called the Mata Aho Collective, greeted Meghan with the traditional Māori greeting.
Artist Sarah Hudson said: "We thought it might be a nice bit of practice before she comes to the Pacific next month and it's nice to be able to practice something that's customary for us.
"She's honouring our heritage and it's so humbling."
The artefacts include some plundered from island tribes in the colonial era which are now part of Western museum collections.
This was Meghan's first solo engagement as a member of the Royal family. Photo / Getty Images
But Meghan was steered clear of the one item on show that remains disputed: a Solomon Island feast trough in the shape of a crocodile. The academy has labelled it with the admission that it was "forcibly seized" in a violent punitive raid by HMS Royalist in 1891.
Inside the academy's Gallery III the Duchess joined some of the 800 guests, including artists and those loaning the exhibits, invited to attend a private function tonight/last night celebrating their involvement in the project.
Carmel Sepuloni, New Zealand's associate minister of arts, culture and heritage, told them: "What a great honour it is to have Her Royal Highness to attend this event as her first solo duty as a member of the Royal Family."
Despite this being the first time that Meghan has attended an engagement alone, the royal showed no nerves as she greeted officials outside the academy on Tuesday evening.
