Queen Elizabeth II is brought ashore on a decorated paopao (canoe) in Tuvalu in 1982 during her official tour of the South Pacific that year. Photo / Tim Graham, Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II is brought ashore on a decorated paopao (canoe) in Tuvalu in 1982 during her official tour of the South Pacific that year. Photo / Tim Graham, Getty Images
Pacific leaders and the community around the region are paying tribute to a Queen who regularly visited the Pasefika throughout her reign and who knew its people as a result.
As news of Queen Elizabeth II's death broke this morning, people around the world started to share their memories and stories of the monarch - including those memories attached to her many visits to the region over her 70-year reign.
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama paid tribute to the Queen, saying Fijian hearts are heavy today.
"We will always treasure the joy of her visits to Fiji along with every moment that her grace, courage and wisdom were a comfort and inspiration to our people even a world away."
Alongside his words posted on Twitter, he shared a black and white photo of a young Queen Elizabeth II accepting what appears to be a bouquet of flowers from a small child dressed in Fijian finery.
Fijian hearts are heavy this morning as we bid farewell to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We will always treasure the joy of her visits to Fiji along with every moment that her grace, courage, and wisdom were a comfort and inspiration to our people, even a world away. pic.twitter.com/SpSHLFfx7B
Speaker of Niue's Assembly, Hima Douglas, acknowledged the Queen's devotion and commitment to her duty to serve her people.
"It is a measure of the respect and love for the Queen and what she represents that her passing is felt in the remotest corner of the Commonwealth and on the small little island of Niue in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean," Douglas said.
Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Salote's special bond
The Queen travelled around the Pacific multiple times during her reign, with a visit to Fiji and Tonga just a few months after her coronation in December, 1953.
She shared a special relationship with the then Tongan monarch - Queen Salote - whom she had met at her coronation a few months earlier.
Queen Salote Tupou III bids farewell to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at Nuku'alofa wharf after their visit to Tonga on the coronation world tour in December, 1953. Photo / Getty Images
Queen Salote has long been well-respected and loved throughout the Pacific and, at the time, had been the only woman monarch in the British Commonwealth before Queen Elizabeth II took the throne.
In later years, following Queen Salote's death in 1965, Queen Elizabeth visited the island Kingdom again and would be greeted by the late Tongan queen's son, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV.
Such was Queen Elizabeth's affection for Queen Salote, she had a personal message included in her grandson the Duke of Sussex Prince Harry's speech when he and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, visited Tonga shortly after their wedding in 2018.
"I would like to end by reading a special message from my grandmother The Queen," he said.
"Your Majesties, it gives me great pleasure that my grandson and his wife are visiting The Kingdom of Tonga. Our two families have enjoyed a deep and warm friendship over many years, and I hope that our close relationship continues with the next generation.
"To this day, I remember with fondness Queen Salote's attendance at my own Coronation, while Prince Philip and I have cherished memories from our three wonderful visits to your country in 1953, 1970 and 1977.
"In the months and years ahead, I wish Your Majesties and the people of Tonga every good fortune and happiness. Mālō 'aupito."
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are greeted by King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV upon their arrival in Tonga, February 1977. Photo / Serge Lemoine, Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II is entertained by Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV at a traditional feast on February 1, 1977, in Tonga. Photo / Anwar Hussein, Getty Images
The Queen was also in the Pacific region for the opening of the Rarotonga International Airport, in the Cook Islands, in 1974.
In February, 1977, she and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, arrived in Samoa as part of the Silver Jubilee tour of Commonwealth countries in the Pacific that also took them to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
They spent one day in Samoa, arriving on the royal yacht HMS Brittania, and met the then Samoan Head of State Malietoa Tanumafili II.
She was also pictured mid-laugh with the then Speaker of the House, Leota Leuluaiali'i Ituau Ale.
While in Fiji on the same tour, among those she met was the then Governor-General of Fiji, Ratu Sir George Kadavulevu Cakobau, who was also a paramount chief who held the titles of Vunivalu of Bau and Tui Levuka.
Local media at the time reported that during a banquet dinner held in her honour in the capital city of Suva, she told the 300 guests present that Fiji was the first Pacific country she had seen back in 1953.
Queen Elizabeth II in Fiji on her royal tour in February, 1977. Walking beside her is then Governor-General of Fiji Ratu Sir George Kadavulevu Cakobau. Photo by Serge Lemoine, Getty
She would visit Fiji six times during her reign.
Such was her familiarity and understanding of local custom and protocol, that she did not bat an eyelid when, in 2013, a Fijian soldier suddenly sat down in her presence while inspecting a guard in Kendal, England.
Though some in the crowd thought the soldier had collapsed, the monarch smiled and carried on - having seen the gesture carried out in Fiji many times before.
The soldier, Rusiate Bolavucu, told the Daily Mail at the time that it was Fijian protocol to do what he did in front of royalty, authority or elders as a sign of respect.
"The Queen has been to Fiji so she knows about it and she asked me where I was from - so she smiled when she saw what I was doing," he told the paper.
She also travelled on a tour around the Pacific in October, 1982, that included visits to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Fiji and the remote island of Tuvalu.
Queen Elizabeth II pictured in October, 1982, visiting locals in Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, as part of her Commonwealth Tour. Photo / Tim Graham, Getty Images
