Thousands have gathered at Tūrangawaewae marae for Māori King’s tangi and the announcement of the new Māori Queen. Video | Carson Bluck
The Kīngitanga (Māori King movement), is one of New Zealand’s oldest surviving political institutions and was founded in 1858.
Origins of the Kīngitanga
Traditionally Māori had no centralised monarchy. Iwi and hapū were independent and were led by rangatira.
In the 1850s there were growing numbers of European settlers wanting to buy Māori land, and Māori lacked political power. Some Māori wanted to unify the tribes under a sovereign.
In 1853, Mātene Te Whiwhi and Tāmihana Te Rauparaha began travelling round the North Island looking for a rangatira who would agree to become king. A number of rangatira declined.
In 1856, at Pūkawa, on the shores of Lake Taupō, the Waikato chief Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was nominated as king. At first he refused, but later he agreed. In 1858 he was declared king at Ngāruawāhia. A powerful nobleman and a leader of the Waikato iwi of the Tainui confederation, he was the founder of the Te Wherowhero royal dynasty.
Pōtatau died in 1860 and his son, Tāwhiao, became king. In 1863, government troops invaded Waikato, and war followed. Waikato were defeated, huge areas of their land were confiscated, and Tāwhiao and his followers retreated into the King Country. In 1881 they returned to Waikato. Tāwhiao worked unsuccessfully for the return of confiscated lands, travelling to London in 1884 to look for support from Queen Victoria.
Tāwhiao set up the Kauhanganui (Kīngitanga parliament) and began poukai (annual visits to Kīngitanga marae).
King Mahuta. Photo / Te Ara
Mahuta 1894–1912
Mahuta became king in 1894 after the death of Tāwhiao, his father. In the 1890s the Kīngitanga tried unsuccessfully to unite with the Kotahitanga (Māori parliament) movement. From 1903 to 1910 Mahuta was a member of the Legislative Council. Born Whatiwhatihoe in the Waikato, probably in 1854 or 1855, Mahuta was the eldest son of King Tāwhiao and his first wife Hera. Mahuta had many half-brothers and -sisters from his father’s other marriages and connections. During his childhood in the 1860s, New Zealand was embroiled in war and in his adolescence his family took refuge in the isolated King Country, so Mahuta received very little European education, spoke little English and was very much a traditionalist.
Te Rata 1912–1933, and Te Puea
Mahuta died in 1912 and his son, Te Rata, became king. Te Rata was often ill. In 1914 he and three others travelled to England. He met King George V, but was told that the land confiscations were an issue for the New Zealand government. Te Rata was invested with the kingship on November 24, 1912, about two weeks after his father’s death. As was the custom for a new Māori King, he assumed the title name of Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, beginning a kingship dogged by ill health and controversy
Princess Te Kirihaehae Te Puea Herangi as a girl. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
Te Rata’s cousin, Te Puea Hērangi, became a Kīngitanga leader. She opposed Māori participation in World War I, and worked to rebuild an economic base and to establish Tūrangawaewae marae at Ngāruawāhia.
Korokī 1933–1966
Korokī reluctantly became king in 1933 after his father, Te Rata, died. At Tūrangawaewae he hosted important visitors, including Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Korokī Te Rata Mahuta Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero was the fifth head of the Kīngitanga movement founded in 1858 in response to European colonisation. When his father died in 1933 there was some support for appointing Te Puea Hērangi as the first Maori queen. But when Korokī raised the issue of his ability to do the job at his father’s funeral, the visiting chiefs agreed that he should succeed Te Rata. Some Māori leaders, including the eminent Apirana Ngata, opposed any institution that challenged the sovereignty of Parliament. The government’s position was similar, and in 1939 it refused to exempt Korokī from a requirement to register under the social security regulations. Many supporters of the Kīngitanga viewed this as disrespectful, and the movement boycotted the celebrations of the centenary of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1940. When Korokī died at Ngāruawāhia in 1966, Piki was chosen as the first Māori queen. She was crowned as Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu a few hours before her father’s burial on May 23, 1966.
After Korokī died in 1966, his daughter, Piki, was crowned as Queen Te Atairangikaahu, the first Māori queen. She was made a dame in 1970. One of the most important achievements during her reign came in 1995, when Waikato–Tainui signed a settlement with the government. When Te Atairangikaahu died in August 2006, she was the longest-serving Māori monarch.
Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII. Image / Maori TV
Tūheitia 2006–2024
Te Atairangikaahu’s son Tūheitia became King Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII in 2006. He died in August 2024.
Ngawai Hono I Te Po 2024-
The youngest and only daughter of Tūheitia was announced as her father’s successor just hours before four waka carried her dad up to his final resting place on Taupiri Maunga. . Ngawai’s appointment continues the lineage going back to the first Māori king Pōtatau Te Wherowhero.
Extracts from Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
