The new Māori Queen: Te Puhi Ariki Ngawai Hono i te Po Paki, 27,

[별고을]

New Zealand | RNZ News

New Zealand Te Ao Māori

2 minutes ago

The new Māori Queen: Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, 27, to succeed her father Kiingi Tuheitia as Māori monarch

  6/09/2024  11: 08: 31am 

Ella Stewart, (Ngāpuhi, Te Māhurehure, Ngāti Manu) Longform Journalist, Te Ao Māori

@ellapetastewart ella.stewart@rnz.co.nz

Kuini Nga wai hono i te po succeeds her father as the eighth - and second-youngest ever - Māori monarch Photo: Composite image - Screengrab / Re News, TVNZ

Kiingi Tuheitia's youngest child and only daughter has been announced as the new monarch of the Kiingitanga.

Kuini Nga wai hono i te po is the eighth Māori monarch and the second woman. The first woman to hold the position was Kiingi Tuheitia's mother, Te Atairangikaahu, who died in 2006. And at 27, Kuini Nga wai hono i te po is also the second-youngest Māori monarch to be appointed.

Kuini Nga wai hono i te po had been favored to ascend the throne, although the selection was not a foregone conclusion.

The late King also has two sons - Te Ariki Tamaaroa Whatumoana Paki and Te Ariki Turuki Korotangi Paki.

Whatumoana Paki, the eldest son, served by his father's side early on, but daughter Ngawai Hono i Te Po has become more well-known in recent years accompanying the king on official engagements.

His youngest son, Korotangi, runs a successful Tā Moko business, named Korotangi Art. In 2016, Korotangi donated his kidney to his father, Kiingi Tuheitia for a kidney transplant.

Tekau maa-rua - the 12 - is the Kiingitanga council made up of 12 representatives from iwi across the motu. The have played a key role in deciding the new monarch, alongside other rangatira, leaders, from around the country. The council has been in wānanga over the last few days coming to this final decision.

It is not known whether the King indicated a preference before he died as to who he wished to take his place.

A rise to prominence

In 2020, Kuini Nga wai hono i te po was appointed to the Waitangi National Trust, to represent Māori living in the North Island south of Tāmaki Makaurau. That seat has been previously held by King Koroki, Sir Hepi te Heuheu, her grandmother Dame Te Atairangikaahu the last Māori queen, and most recently by Sir Tumu te Heuheu.

Kuini Nga wai hono i te po studied a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Waikato, followed by a Masters Degree in Tikanga Māori. During university she taught Kapa Haka.

She was part of kapa haka rōpū Ngaa Pou o Taniwharau, which both of her parents also performed with. Her first taste on the stage at Te Matatini was in 2013 when she was invited to join her tutors on stage in the senior competition.

She was named by her grandmother, the late Te Atairangikaahu, who was told of the birth when she was at a meeting at night near Parikino.

In 2016, to celebrate Kiingi Tuheitia's 10th year leading the Kiingitanga movement, Kuini Nga wai hono i te po received her moko kauae alongside her mother, Atawhai and former Labour MP and cousin Nanaia Mahuta.

The late King's eldest son

Te Ariki Tamaaroa Whatumoana, the late Kiingi Tuheitia's eldest son. Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae

Although the role of Māori monarch is not automatically inherited or hereditary, all of the current kings and queens, starting with Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the first monarch, and ending with Tuheitia, are direct descendants of their predecessors. It was possible that the role could have been handed to someone from another whānau, or even iwi.

Kiingi Tuheitia's two sons have also had important roles and have previously been considered possible successors.

For much of 2013, Kiingi Tuheitia was unwell with diabetes and cancer. In 2014, he suffered a heart attack, and spent time in Waikato Hospital. During his period of illness, his eldest son Te Ariki Tamaaroa Whatumoana assumed the role of Te Whirinaki a te Kiingi, to speak on his behalf.

A King's Council, Te Kaunihera a Te Kiingi was created to help guide Whatumoana Paki, who was just 22 at the time, while he acted for his father and took over his duties. Whatumoana Paki was a close confidant of his grandmother, even learning of his father's succession before he did.

Whatumoana has long been prepared to succeed his father but ultimately Kuini Nga wai hono i te po was chosen.

Kiingi Tuheitia himself didn't expect to be the next King.

The Māori Queen who will continue her father‘s- and her grandmother’s - wonderful legacies

Story by Ella Stewart

 • 5/09/2024  10:05:07am

The youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia – Ngāwai Hono I Te Pō Paki – has been anointed the new leader of the Kīngitanga, taking over a legacy of her loved father and her much loved grandmother Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the 6th and 7th Māori monarchs.

As the only daughter and youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, she carries her birthright in the Kīngitanga and becomes 8th monarch, continuing the direct line to the first Māori king.

The 27-year-old University of Waikato graduate has been long groomed to take over from her father and could have a long reign.

Māori leaders and politicians agree this appointment is significant for the Kīngitanga and her influence across Aotearoa, New Zealand immense for many years to come.

“This is more than a generational shift,” NZ First MP Shane Jones said. “She will be the face of renewal.

“Given the extent of Māori youth, I suspect she will personify their aspirations.”

She was anointed by Archbishop Don Tamihere.

Today marks the seventh and final day of formal tangihanga proceedings for the king at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia as he will be taken to his maunga, Taupiri, to be laid to rest among his ancestors, including his mother this afternoon.

Paki, who holds a masters degree in tīkanga Māori, was in her second and third years at the University of Waikato when she got a job teaching kapa haka. In an interview with the university, Paki said she lives and breathes kapa haka.

Given her love for kapa haka, it is likely the new monarch will continue her father’s role as patron for Te Matatini.© Erica Sinclair

Given her love for kapa haka, it is likely the new monarch will continue her father’s role as patron for Te Matatini.

In the interview, Paki said there was hardly a day in her life when kapa haka was not present.

“I walk around my house and I see a taiaha. I get into my car and my poi is on the seat.

“I go home to my parents’ house and my little nephew is there and he’s trying to do the haka. So it is just everywhere. I’ve been brought up in it, I am it. A lot of people are kapa haka. It’s the embodiment of Māoritanga.”

She said her earliest memory of kapa haka was when she was around 3 and her parents were performing at Matatini 2000.

“I was practising all my pūkana in front of a mirror in the hallway of our old house at Waahi Pā, when my mother walked past behind me and just cracked up,” she told the university.

“She said, ‘It’s probably going to be you one day’.”

Paki has been positioned next to her father’s casket during the tangihanga proceedings along with her mother, Te Makau Ariki Atawhai, as thousands of mourners come through the marae grounds to pay their respects to Tūheitia.

Resounding haka and waiata have been performed to the whānau, while speakers have included some of the country’s most revered rangatira, leaders of the Pacific including King Pōmare of Tahiti, and politicians including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.