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New king of Wallis is crowned
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Posted on Jul 28 2008
[B]SUVA, Fiji[/B] (Oceania Flash/PIR)—The new King of Wallis, Kapiliele (Gabriel) Faupala, 68, was crowned Friday in front of some two thousand people, chiefs and officials from the French Pacific islands, as well as New Caledonia.
The ceremony, which was broadcast live on the French Overseas Television network RFO, followed the announcement mid-July from the island’s traditional council of ministers, who said Faupala was their choice to succeed late Tomasi Kulimoetoke, who died in May 2007 after a record 48 years of reign.
For the past four years, Faupala had been heading what is locally referred to as the Customary Council of Ministers, a body that enjoys a certain form of recognition from the ruling French authorities under the 1961 status of Overseas Territory signed with France by Kulimoetoke.
Faupala, locally known as the Kalai Ki Valu, is also a retired public servant, in the French administration and the local public works department, where he served until 1995, local television RFO reported at the weekend.
He hails from the village of Ahoa, in the centre of Wallis Island.
On Friday, the coronation was the culminating point of a series of elaborate traditional ceremonies, involving traditional gifts and a kava ceremony.
The ceremonies, which took place on the main grounds of the capital Mata’Utu (the Marae Sagatosoane, where Tomasi Kulimoetoke was buried in May 2007), also took place in the presence of the French Secretary General to the Administrator Superior of Wallis and Futuna, who is currently out of Wallis.
Faupala has also chosen to retain the name of Lavelua.
A strong delegation also flew from neighbouring New Caledonia, which is also home to a 20,000-strong community from Wallis and Futuna.
The two islands of Wallis and Futuna are home to three Kingdoms: one on Wallis and two on Futuna.
The late King of Wallis, Tomasi Kulimoetoke, died in May 2007 aged 87.
He had been crowned in 1959 and had ruled uninterrupted for a record 48 years.
Two years after his coronation, in 1961, Kulimoetoke signed a pact with France that granted both Wallis and Futuna islands the official status of “French Overseas Territory”.
Wallis and Futuna islands, located Northeast of Fiji, are populated by around fifteen thousand inhabitants.
Another twenty thousand-strong community from those islands is also residing in New Caledonia (populated by around 230,000).
