New Zealand’s Maori anoint new queen, bury late king

Ngaruawahia, New Zealand - New Zealand’s Maori chiefs anointed a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch on Sept 5, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country’s indigenous community.

Queen Nga Wai hono i te po Paki was cheered by thousands as she ascended a high-backed wooden throne during an elaborate ceremony on the country’s North Island.

She is the youngest daughter of King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, who died on Aug 30 after heart surgery.

After being selected by a council of chiefs, Queen Nga Wai was ushered to the throne by a phalanx of bare-chested and tattooed men bearing ceremonial weapons – who chanted, screamed and shouted in acclamation.

Wearing a wreath of leaves, a cloak and a whalebone necklace, she sat beside her father’s coffin as emotive rites, prayers and chants were performed.

The late king had laid in state for six days before being taken down the Waikato River on a flotilla of four war canoes each powered by more than a dozen rowers.

His funerary procession passed throngs of onlookers camped on the riverbank, before stopping at the foot of sacred Mount Taupiri.

From there, three rugby teams acted as pallbearers, shepherding his coffin up steep slopes to the summit and the final resting place of past Maori royals.

Passing the torch

The Maori monarch is a mostly ceremonial role with no legal status.

But it has enormous cultural, and sometimes political, significance as a potent symbol of Maori identity and kinship.

As the King’s only daughter and his youngest child, Queen Nga Wai was perhaps considered an outside choice to become his successor.

One of her two elder brothers had taken on many ceremonial duties during their father’s periods of ill health and had been tipped to take over.

“It is certainly a break from traditional Maori leadership appointments which tend to succeed to the eldest child, usually a male” Maori cultural adviser Karaitiana Taiuru told AFP.

Dr Taiuru said it was a “privilege” to witness a young Maori woman become queen, particularly given the ageing leadership and mounting challenges faced by the community.

“The Maori world has been yearning for younger leadership to guide us in the new world of artificial intelligence, genetic modification, global warming and in a time of many other social changes that question and threaten us and indigenous peoples of New Zealand,” he said.

“These challenges require a new and younger generation to lead us.”

New Zealand’s Maori make up about 17 per cent of the population, or about 900,000 people.

Maori citizens are much more likely than other New Zealanders to be unemployed, live in poverty or suffer cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and suicide.

Maori life expectancy is seven years less than other New Zealanders.

The Kiingitanga, or Maori King movement, was founded in 1858 with the aim of uniting New Zealand’s tribes under a single sovereign in the face of British colonisation.

“People think Maori people are one nation – we’re not. We’re many tribes, many iwi. We have different ways of speaking out,” said Ms Joanne Teina, who had travelled from Auckland for the ceremony.

“The Kiingitanga was created to create unity – among people who were fighting each other for thousands of years, before Pakeha (Europeans) came along. Now we just fight them.”

Second queen

Queen Nga Wai is the eighth Maori monarch and the second queen.

Her grandmother, Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, held the position for four decades until 2006.

The new queen studied the Maori language and customary law at New Zealand’s Waikato University. She also taught “kapa haka” performing arts to children.

To mark the anniversary of the King’s coronation in 2016, she received a traditional Maori “moko” tattoo on her chin.

King Tuheitia, a 69-year-old lorry driver turned royal, died just days after heart surgery and celebrations marking the 18th anniversary of his coronation.

Tens of thousands of Indigenous citizens and “Pakeha” – those of European ancestry – visited to pay respects, mourn and celebrate New Zealand’s rich Maori heritage.

Among them was Auckland-based Mr Darrio Penetito-Hemara, who told AFP the king had united “many people across Aotearoa (New Zealand) who don’t often see eye to eye”.

The King leaves a legacy forged “through respect, through aroha (love)“, he said.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon welcomed Queen Nga Wai in a statement, saying she “carries forward the mantle of leadership left by her father”.

“The path ahead is illuminated by the great legacy of Kiingi Tuheitia,” he said. AFP