- New Zealand’s Maori king, Tuhetia Potau te Radohero VII, 69, has died. Her daughter, Ngā wai hono i te po, 27, is the new queen.
- Nga Wai Hono Ai Te Po is the second woman to become a Maori king in the 1858 tradition.
- King Tuhetia’s funeral was attended not only by Maori tribesmen, but by leaders of all political parties, past prime ministers, leaders of Pacific Island countries, diplomats and representatives of the British Crown.
They came by the thousands on chilly mornings, parking cars far away and walking the rural roads, children riding on their shoulders. They arrived in mourning black with wreaths of fern and kawakawa leaves, bone carvings, or wedges of deep green pounamu – New Zealand jade – resting on their chests.
Mourners flocked to the North Island town of Ngaruawahia on Thursday to witness the ascension to the throne of New Zealand’s Maori king, Tuhetia Potatau te Wharohero VII, who died six days earlier, and his daughter, Ngā Wai Hono Ite. po The new queen, 27, is the second woman to become a Maori king in the 1858 tradition.
As she was carried to Turangawave Mara – an ancestral meeting place – where her father’s casket was draped in a feather cloth, thousands of people crowded around TV screens outside and waited for a glimpse of Kingi Tuyersitia on the wide, flat banks of the Waikato River. A voice of joy was heard. The procession followed her ascension, accompanying the late monarch in a flotilla of traditional canoes along the banks of the Ngā wai hono i te po river as she was guided by Māori warriors to her final resting place.
The events marked the end of a week-long tangihanga — funeral rites — for Kingi Tuhetia, 69, a leader who in recent months has rallied New Zealand’s indigenous people to unite in the face of a more racially divided political culture than before. His daughter’s ascension marks the rise of a new generation of Maori leaders In New Zealand – One who grew up in a reviving language that was once almost dead.
Kingi Tuhetia died last Friday after undergoing heart surgery, just days after celebrating his 18th anniversary on the throne. He became king after his mother died in 2006 and was buried with her on Thursday in an unmarked grave on Taupiri Maunga, a mountain of spiritual significance to his iwi, or tribe.
Kingitanga, or the Maori royalty movement, is not a constitutional monarchy and Britain’s King Charles III is New Zealand’s head of state. It has a formal rather than legal mandate and was created in the years following the British colonization of New Zealand to unite the Maori tribes in resistance to the forced sale of indigenous land and the loss of Maori language and culture.
Monarchs have traditionally played politics lightly and Tuhitia was remembered this week as a quiet and gentle man. But in recent months, his voice had become louder.
A centre-right government took power in New Zealand last November and began to legislate Policies reversing the recognition of the Maori languagePeople and customs, Tuhetia took the unusual step of convening a national meeting of tribes in January which was attended by 10,000 people.
“The best opposition we can have right now is Maori. Be what we are. Live our values. Speak our reo,” he told them, using the Maori word for language. “Just be Maori. Be Māori all day, every day. We are here. We are strong.”
Tuhetia urged New Zealanders to embrace the concept of kotahitanga – unity of purpose – as one reason he said there is “room for everyone.”
His words echoed in the days leading up to his funeral, including among political leaders whose plans he had rallied to oppose. In a reflection of the place that the Māori language and customs have held in New Zealand public life in recent decades, his funeral was attended not only by Māori tribes but by leaders of all political parties, past prime ministers, leaders of Pacific Island countries. , diplomats and representatives of the British Crown.
Thousands of ordinary people also flocked there. Many spoke to each other in Maori, a language that steadily declined after colonization until activists instigated its revival in the 1970s. Among his initiatives was the establishment of Maori language pre-schools, the first graduates of which are now young adults.
The daughter of Tuhitia was among them; While her father was from a generation in which many were discouraged from speaking Maori, she attended Maori immersion schools. Ngā wai hono i te po holds a degree in Māori customs and is an accomplished artist in kapa haka, an indigenous performance art.
The late king, a truck driver before he took the throne, was a surprise appointment to the monarchy, which is chosen by the council and is not necessarily hereditary. But the new queen was groomed for the role and supported her father’s work in recent years.
Her ascension comes at a fraught political moment. Since 1858, Kingitanga has guaranteed Māori sovereignty and other promises in the founding document of modern New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the Crown and the Māori tribes. In the years since, translation issues and attempts to reinterpret the treaty have sometimes fueled conflict, which has flared up again in recent months.
“The treaty provides a foundation for all of us to work together. Let’s not change it, it will hurt us,” Tuhetia said days before his death at an event marking his enthronement days. While New Zealand was facing a storm as Maori rights were rolled back, “There’s no need to worry. In this storm, we are stronger together,” he said.
After the new queen was anointed with oil and a service was held for her father, mourners flocked behind her as she walked to the banks of a river sacred to her tribe. There, Tuhetia’s casket made its journey up the mountain in traditional carved canoes, accompanied by mourners, in some places 10 people falling deep, silent and bowing as it passed.
When he was taken to the foot of the mountain under the clear afternoon sky, A roaring haka, or ceremonial songMourners emerged from among the waiting graves scattered on the steep hillside and dozens helped carry the late king to his burial site at the top.
Many had waited for hours to see the procession pass, including a large number of young families. Critics said the Queen’s ascension represented a cultural renewal, with most Maori – who make up about 20% of New Zealand’s population – under the age of 40.
Among them on Thursday was 9-year-old Ava Tukiri, whose family drove nearly two hours from Auckland to see the canoe carrying the late king.
“It was pretty amazing because what they do on the boat is do haka and waita on it,” he said, using words for Maori songs and chants. Tukiri, who attends kura kaupapa – immersion schools growing in popularity – said the best part of being Maori was “just hanging out and speaking Maori to each other”.
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