- The new Māori Queen is Ngā Wai hono i te pō, the youngest of Tūheitia’s three children.
- The 27-year-old University of Waikato graduate has been long groomed to take over from her father.
- Māori leaders and politicians agree this appointment is significant for the Kīngitanga.
The youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia – Ngā Wai hono i te pō – 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 sixth and seventh 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.
The youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia, Ngā Wai hono i te pō, is revealed as the next Māori monarch. Photo / Kiingitanga
“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.
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, she 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’.”
The new Queen 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, who attended earlier before flying out overseas commitments.
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