Crowds turn out to see King Charles at Sydney Opera House

Britain's King Charles greets an Indigenous community member during a visit to the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence in Sydney, Australia, October 22, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Pool

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Britain's King Charles was embraced by an Indigenous elder after a welcome smoking ceremony on Tuesday in the birthplace of Australia's urban Aboriginal civil rights movement in Sydney, a day after being heckled by an Indigenous senator in Canberra.

Charles met Indigenous elders at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in inner-city Redfern, where he was embraced by elder Michael Welsh, and a woman introduced herself as a member of the Stolen Generation - a reference to Aboriginal children systematically removed from their families decades earlier. "Welcome to this country," she said.