New Zealand’s Maori named a new king on Thursday, electing the 27-year-old queen to a symbolic but weighty role as some of the indigenous group’s hard-fought rights are rolled back.
Nga Wai Hono i te Po succeeds his father Kiingi Tuhetia Died last week After 18 years as king and buried in a funeral that ended on Thursday. The new queen, his youngest daughter, is the eighth Maori monarch since the role was created in 1858 to unite the tribes as European settlers encroached.
She was chosen by Maori leaders and presented at a ceremony on Thursday before thousands gathered for Kiingi Tuhetia’s funeral, Kiingitanga, the Maori King Movement, said. In a statement.
Live footage At a ceremony on Radio New Zealand, the public broadcaster showed her on an intricately carved wooden throne next to her father’s coffin, amid cheers from the crowd and some in attendance wiping away tears.
The king’s body was taken in procession to Mount Taupiri in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island, where Māori kings are buried.
Nga Wai Hono i te Po is the second woman to lead Māori, after her grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atarangikahu, who ruled for four decades in 1966. She is the second-youngest Māori monarch and serves on Waitangi National. Trust to represent the Maori people on its management Historical placeAccording to Radio New Zealand.
In 2022, Nga Wai Hono i te Po traveled to London as his father’s representative to meet with the then Prince Charles. She said at the time that she felt conflicted about meeting royalty from a country that had invaded and colonized her people’s land, but said she would share the stories of her ancestors and contribute to the relationship between Maori and the people of England.
“I’m angry, but it’s right that I’m angry,” she said, in Maori. According to a short documentary of her visit. “I have a loud mouth, so I need to be careful.”
About a million New Zealanders are of Maori descent, a fifth of the population. Census of 2023.
Since coming to power last year, New Zealand’s current government, the most conservative in a generation, has scrapped the Maori Health Agency and Forced to quit Other policies that benefit the community include higher incarceration rates and poorer health outcomes than the general population.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who was on a tour of South Korea, welcomed the new queen In a social media postsaying that she “carries forward the mantle of leadership left by her father.”
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