A new era for the Kiingitanga has dawned with the anointment of Kīngi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII’s successor, Nga Wai Hono i te Po.
Nga Wai Hono i te Po became the new Māori Queen in a traditional ceremony known as Te Whakawahinga, or ‘the raising up’, in the hours before today’s funeral service for Kīngi Tuheitia.
A new Kuīni
Kuīni Nga Wai Hono i te Po is the only daughter and the youngest child of Kīngi Tuheitia and Makau Ariki Atawhai.
Nga Wai Hono i te Po is the eighth Māori monarch and only the second woman to assume the role. Her grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, was the first.
A life dedicated to te ao Māori
Nga Wai Hono i te Po went to school at Te Whare Kura o Rakaumanga in Huntly.
She received a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship to study for a Bachelor of Arts. She also holds a Master of Arts in Tikanga Māori.
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Now aged 27, Nga Wai Hono i te Po has held several roles since finishing her studies.
She was a board member of the Waikato-Tainui College for Research and Development and a member of Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, the organisation charged with revitalising te reo Māori.
She was brought on to the marae by chiefs of the land, led by paramount chief Tā Tumu Te Heuheu. (Source: Kiingitanga) (Source: Supplied)
She was appointed to the University of Waikato Council last year. The University of Waikato is where Nga Wai Hono i te Po studied. She was a member of the weaving team that prepared the tukutuku panels in the university’s wharenui.
Kapa haka has also been a large part of her life. She once said her earliest memory of kapa haka was being with her parents while they performed at Te Matatini in 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 passed behind me and just cracked up. She said, ‘It’s probably going to be you one day.’ Then she was off to perform with Taniwharau. I was brought up in Taniwharau. I’ve even got a song that was written for me when I was a baby, and they performed it in 1998.”
She has previously performed with several kapa haka groups at Te Matatini.
The Kuīni received her moko kauae in 2016 to support and acknowledge her father and describes it as her gift to him.
Continuing the legacy
Nga Wai Hono i te Po had been accompanying her father at official engagements in recent years, in what many saw as preparation to be his successor.
Like her grandmother, who became monarch in her mid-30s, she is a young Kuīni.
While the role of Kīngi or Kuīni is not hereditary, each one has been a direct descendant of the previous monarch so far. The new monarch is chosen by the rangatira [leaders] associated with the Kiingitanga.
A successor’s gender and whether they had children used to be strict criteria, but the selection process has evolved over time.
Che Wilson, chairperson of advisory council Tekau Mā Rua, told 1News earlier this week it was important things changed with each Kīngi or Kuīni, so the Kiingitanga remained “relevant”.
“If we don’t stay relevant, it will become history,” he said.
Note: The use of double vowels in this article reflects the dialect used by the Kiingitanga/Kīngitanga which uses double vowels (aa, ee, ii, oo, uu) in place of macronised vowels (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū).