Maori King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero was buried in New Zealand amid the sympathy of tens of thousands of mourners. After the body lay in state for several days, it was taken in a procession of canoes along the Waikato River to its final resting place on the sacred Taupiri Mountain, about 100 kilometers south of the city of Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island.
Tuheitia died at the end of last week, a few days after the 18th anniversary of his coronation, at the age of 69. He had been considered to be in poor health for years and had recently undergone heart surgery.
Daughter is new queen
Before the funeral, his youngest daughter Nga Wai Hono i te Po was chosen by tribal leaders as his successor. The 27-year-old is the eighth monarch of the indigenous population of the Pacific state since the “Kiingitanga” (Maori King Movement) was founded in 1958 with the aim of uniting the indigenous people under a single ruler.
After her grandmother, she is only the second woman to hold this office. The title of Maori king is not hereditary, but all rulers are direct descendants of their predecessors. The new queen, who has the traditional facial tattoo “Ta moko”, also followed her father’s coffin in a canoe.
Ritual dances and songs
Thousands lined the streets and the river, saying goodbye to the popular and humble king with haka (a ritual dance) and waiata (song). His widow was escorted to the mountain by the New Zealand Defence Force and a motorcade of 100 motorcycles. The coffin was then carried by bearers on ropes to the top of Taupiri Mountain for burial.
The mountain has great spiritual significance. Tuheitia was buried there next to his mother, Te Arikinui, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, who died in 2006 and was previously Queen for 40 years.
Maori kings have no power at the state level, but they play a major symbolic and cultural role in uniting the various Maori tribes and thus exert national influence. It is primarily about preserving and defending the rights of the indigenous population. There are currently around 900,000 Maori living in New Zealand, which is just over 17 percent of the population.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240905-930-223494/1
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