When the anointment was complete, a procession to the Taupiri Maunga began, including a flotilla of waka, and hundreds of people including revered rangatira, rangatahi, babies and families.
There was also kapa haka, karanga, waerea (spiritual chants), live broadcasts and commentary for those watching from home, a guard of honour from the Army and the Royal NZ Air Force, and many other elements that make a funeral for a Māori monarch unique.
The new Māori Queen travelled from Tūrangawaewae with her father’s casket by waka down the Waikato River to the base of Taupiri Maunga.
The casket was carried to the top of the maunga by pallbearers with emotional scenes reminiscent of the 2006 te rā nehu (burial day) for Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.
Many mourners had also gathered at the graves of their own whānau within the urupā (burial grounds) to watch the funeral.
When the Kīngi’s casket arrived at the maunga, hundreds of people dressed in black stood in the urupā on the mountain and performed haka as the casket was carried towards them.
It was a beautiful and monumental procession — many have said the size of the Kīngi’s tangi and the number of people who came from near and far to honour him was a testament to the impact he had on people of New Zealand.
There was a sense of unity among the mourners — ordinary members of the public and the ariki’s whānau, Māori and non-Māori, people who knew him directly and those who admired him from afar — all sharing in a sense of pain and grief.
Earlier in the day, crowds of people who had gathered at Tūrangawaewae Marae, where Kīngi Tūheitia had lain in state since his death last week aged 69, cheered and clapped when it was revealed his youngest child would take over the throne.
”Kuīni Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō!” the crowd chanted.
For many people, te rā nehu, or burial day, has been a mixture of emotions – mamae or pain with the loss of a leader but joy with the news of a new monarch.
Māori warden Harold Falwasser was one of the mourners grappling with that mixture; mamae as Tūheitia was laid to rest, and happiness a new monarch was announced. Falwasser said he was “overjoyed” the King’s daughter was named as the new Queen.
Who is the new Māori queen?
Kuīni Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō, the eighth monarch of the Kīngitanga, was born on January 13, 1997. She is the only daughter and youngest child of Tūheitia and Makau Ariki Atawhai.
Biographical information released by the Kīngitanga yesterday detailed how kapa haka was a passion that had been nurtured within her by her parents and whānau since she was 3.
She has previously performed with several kapa haka groups at the Te Matatini national kapa haka festival.
The eighth Māori monarch was educated at Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga in Huntly and received a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship in 2016 to complete a BA followed by an MA with first class honours at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato (University of Waikato) in 2022.
She has served in several governance roles as representative of the Kīngitanga, including the Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust and the Waitangi National Trust.
In 2016, she received her moko kauae to support and acknowledge her father and describes it as her gift to him.
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.
