A new queen has been crowned as the eighth Māori monarch in New Zealand.
Twenty-seven-year-old Ngā Wai hono i te pō was chosen as Kuini by a council of New Zealand’s indigenous Māori chiefs during an elaborate ceremony in the country’s North Island.
She is only the second Māori queen, the first being her grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.
Ngā Wai hono i te pō is the youngest child of King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, who died last Friday at the age of 69.
Her crowning will be followed by the burial of King Tuheitia, for which thousands of mourners have gathered.
Sitting on a carved wooden throne, the new queen was announced at a gathering at Tûrangawaewae Marae, which is the seat of the Kiingitanga or Māori king movement.
She sat in front of her father’s coffin, wearing a wreath and a cloak as prayers and chants were performed.
A flotilla of war canoes sat ready to take the king – who has lain in state for six days – to his final resting place on Mount Taupiri, sacred to the Māori people.
The king had been recovering from heart surgery in hospital when he died, just days after celebrating the 18th anniversary of his coronation.
“The death of Kiingi Tuheitia is a moment of great sadness for followers of Te Kiingitanga, Maaoridom and the entire nation,” Rahui Papa, spokesman for the Kiingitanga or Māori king movement said at the time. “A chief who has passed to the great beyond. Rest in love.”
The king was born Tūheitia Paki in 1955. He was crowned in 2006 following the death of his mother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.
Like his mother, King Tuheitia was seen as a great unifying figure – recently calling on Māori to stand together in the face of policies targeting them.
The Māori monarchy dates back to 1858, when the Māori people decided to create a unifying figure similar to that of a European monarch in order to try and prevent the widespread loss of land to New Zealand’s British colonisers and to preserve Māori culture. The role is largely ceremonial.
