Refer Report
Queen Nawai Hono I Te Po Paki, the eighth monarch of the Maori people of New Zealand. AFP Yonhap News
The 27-year-old youngest daughter of New Zealand’s late Maori king has been crowned the new Maori monarch.
According to Reuters and other sources, on the 5th (local time), the Kiingtanga Council, consisting of 12 Maori chiefs, elected Nawai Hono i Te Po Paki (27), the youngest daughter of Maori King Tuheitia Putatau Te Whelowhero, 7, who passed away on the 30th of last month, as the 8th Maori monarch.
Archbishop Don Tamihere anointed Nawai’s head with oil on the last day of King Tuheitia’s six-day Tangihanga (funeral) in front of thousands of people. Chiefs welcomed the new king as “a new dawn.”
King Tuheitia, 69, died on the 30th of last month after undergoing heart surgery. He was survived by two sons and a daughter, and the council nominated Nawai, the youngest daughter, as the next monarch. This is only the second time a queen has ascended to the Maori leadership position, following Nawai’s grandmother, Queen Te Atairangikahu.
The Maori established their own king in 1858 to protect their culture and lands from British colonial rule. The throne is not hereditary, but has been held by direct descendants of the first monarch, Potatau Te Whelowe.
In New Zealand, the Maori king has no legal authority and plays a largely ceremonial role, but he is a symbol of Maori identity and thus carries political influence.
Attention is being paid to the leadership of the new monarch, who was elected at a time when there have been criticisms that Maori rights have been declining since the conservative National Party took power last year. Maori make up about 20% of New Zealand’s total population of 5.2 million.
Source: Korean