Editorial: Enigmatic guardian of a vision

Te Arikinui, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, who will be buried today, was an enigma to most New Zealanders. She was loved and revered by her Tainui tribe and the other iwi who make up the Kingitanga (King Movement). She was admired and respected by Maori, Pakeha and foreign dignitaries whom she encountered through 40 years in office. Yet she was little known by the general public, and her influence was little understood.

She did not seek a high profile, seldom spoke out on political issues and instead used the real power of her position quietly, counselling and persuading Maori and Pakeha with regal inscrutability. Her role in life was to nurture and develop her own, be it family, Tainui, members of the Kingitanga or the Maori nation. Her mantle was passed from her ancestors who formed the Kingitanga as a counterweight to the English Crown, in modern parlance achieving a political "critical mass" to protect land. Her role had an almost sacred status seen most starkly in the palpable reluctance of her people, when she was alive, to talk about her or her thinking in any mainstream setting.

In the week since her death, the eulogising has told of a woman of humility, grace and steadfast spirit, one who oversaw Tainui's historic 1995 raupatu settlement with the Crown over 400,000ha of confiscated lands, and was an inspiration in the revival of te reo and in the broader Maori renaissance over the past 30 years.

Her anglicised title was "Maori Queen" but she used Te Arikinui, which was what she was, the highest chief in the most important coalition of tribes in the land. And perhaps her greatest achievement was in keeping that coalition, the Kingitanga, intact and vital within Maoridom and relevant in the 21st century. She once said that the Kingitanga was part of every moment, thought, action and breath in her life. As Tainui bickered among itself in 2001 over the tribe's management, she said: "Beyond all our troubles, our unifying force of Kingitanga keeps us secure and confident with a wave of renewal carrying us on."

The strength of that renewal has been evident in the vast crowds of mourners from the Kingitanga and beyond these past five days. It will be evident again today at Ngaruawahia and at Tainui's sacred Taupiri mountain when Dame Te Ata's funeral and burial occur.

In 2006, talk of queens, kings, monarchies and royalty seems anachronistic and bound for modernising change. Yet a new king or, less likely, queen will today be confirmed by the Kingitanga to continue Dame Te Ata's work.

Those wondering what that person will aspire to do probably need look no further than Dame Te Ata's speech at the silver jubilee of her coronation: "Today, I am reminded that 25 years ago, the mantle of leadership was placed upon me by the elders of the many tribes just as it was on Te Wherowhero [her ancestor]. I inherited the traditions, hopes and aspirations of the Kingitanga, resources which support our people on their continuing journey into what must always be an uncertain future. Our people are gathering up the visions and dreams of our ancestors. All of them believed that for us to grow, prosper and survive, we had to unite, pool our resources and organise to face the massive changes before us. The taonga of Kingitanga was the symbol they established to hold that vision."

Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu carried it with determination and dignity, and much success.