The Maori have a new queen (and she’s the youngest in the world)

In a riot of spears, tattoos and tribal skirts the Maoridescendants of the indigenous people of New Zealand, have crowned their new queen: Nga Wai Hono i te po Paki, third child of the late King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VIIwho died last week at the age of 69 after an eighteen-year reign. Nga Wai, who is only 27 years old, has become the youngest queen in the world during an evocative investiture ceremony that took place in Ngaruawahia, in the North Island of New Zealand. In front of thousands of people who acclaimed him as «the new dawn» the sovereign – seated on a carved wooden throne, wearing a crown of flowers and a cloak – was anointed with sacred oils and blessed with the Bible used to crown the first Maori king in 1858. Then, amid prayers and songs she sat in front of her father’s coffinwho was finally transported by warriors, in a canoe, along the Waikato River to the sacred mountain Taupiri, the burial place. Nga Wai is the eighth monarch of the Maori people and the second queen woman: the first one had been hers Grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahuwho held the position for forty years, until his death in 2006.

The Maori throne is not hereditary. Nga Wai was chosen as monarch by the Kiingitanga advisory council, a movement born in 1858 to preserve indigenous culture and traditions and combat widespread land loss to British colonizers. The council, composed of 12 elder tribal chiefs, has made a far from obvious choice in appointing Nga Wai as queen. The twenty-seven-year-old is not only the third child of the late king, but he has two older brothers. Formerly a British colony and still part of the Commonwealth, New Zealand’s official monarch is King Charles III.. Maori rulers have no real legal status, they play a mainly administrative role. ceremonial. However, their figure is a powerful symbol of the identity of the Maori people, their culture and their traditions. King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has always fought for his people, often discriminated against. Last January, for example, had defended the rights of the Maori in front of 10,000 people: the right-wing government wanted to implement measures to limit the use of the indigenous language and lower living standards.

The late king’s daughter seems determined to follow her own path: Nga Wai Hono i te Po Paki, who has a master’s degree in Maori cultural studies from the University of Waikato, is considered a great champion of the Kiingitanga cause. She was just 25 when, in 2022, during a meeting with the then Prince Charles in London, she explained that she had undertaken the journey to honor her ancestors and to encourage reflection on the brutality of colonization in New Zealand: “I’ll be honest,” she said, “My greatest wish is that all Maori land be returned to the Maori». Now his people are celebrating. Because they are convinced that the combination of modernity and tradition embodied by the new queen – who belongs to Generation Z but also has her chin decorated with a «moko kauae», the traditional facial tattoo – can be of help in the confrontation with the current New Zealand government (often accused of being «anti-Maori»).