After William and Kate's tour, Dutch royals met with protest action in Caribbean over colonial past

• The Dutch royals attended a lecture at the University of Aruba on Tuesday when a woman stood up and began singing gospel song Oh, Freedom in protest.
• The royals are currently on a two-week tour of the Caribbean.
• The tour comes following King Willem-Alexander's decision to investigate the royals' colonial past.

King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima and heir to the throne, Princess Catharina-Amalia, are currently touring the Caribbean – but while attending a lecture at the University of Aruba on Tuesday, a woman stood up and began singing gospel song Oh, Freedom in protest.

The woman was later escorted out of the building, but the demonstration brought up painful memories of the Dutch royals and their colonial past.

According to BBC, the Dutch colonised Aruba in the 17th century. Up until today, the island remains linked to the Dutch, as a Kingdom of the Netherlands, as in the case of Curaçao and St. Maarten, both of which the royals intend on visiting on their two-week tour.

The tour comes following the monarch's decision to investigate the royals' colonial past, per Reuters, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's apology for the Netherlands' history of slavery.

The Dutch royals aren't the first to come under fire for their colonial past. The Prince and Princess of Wales embarked on a highly publicised and controversial tour of the Caribbean in 2022.

William later addressed the controversy surrounding the tour, saying: "Our trip was an opportunity to reflect, and we learnt so much. Not just about the different issues that matter most to the people of the region, but also how the past weighs heavily on the present."

The royal's comments were made as he unveiled a new national monument to the "Windrush" generation of Caribbean migrants: a bronze statue which depicts a man, woman and child standing on top of suitcases that will greet millions of rail commuters at London's Waterloo station.