‘The face of renewal’: Who is the new Māori Queen?

Follow live coverage of Kīngi Tūheitia’s funeral here
The youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia – Ngā Wai hono i te pō – has been anointed the new leader of the Kīngitanga, taking over a legacy of her loved father and her much loved grandmother Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the sixth and seventh Māori monarchs.
As the only daughter and youngest child of Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, she carries her birthright in the Kīngitanga and becomes the eighth monarch, continuing the direct line to the first Māori King.
The 27-year-old University of Waikato graduate has been long groomed to take over from her father and could have a long reign.
Māori leaders and politicians agree this appointment is significant for the Kīngitanga and her influence across Aotearoa, New Zealand immense for many years to come.
“This is more than a generational shift,” NZ First MP Shane Jones said. “She will be the face of renewal.
“Given the extent of Māori youth, I suspect she will personify their aspirations.”
She was anointed by Archbishop Don Tamihere.
Yesterday marked the seventh and final day of formal tangihanga proceedings for her father Kīngi Tūheitia at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia.
Ngā Wai hono i te pō, who holds a Masters degree in tīkanga Māori, was in her second and third years at the University of Waikato when she got a job teaching kapa haka. In an interview with the university, she said she lives and breathes kapa haka.
And given her love for kapa haka, it is likely the new monarch will continue her father’s role as patron for Te Matatini.
In the interview, she said there was hardly a day in her life when kapa haka was not present.
“I walk around my house and I see a taiaha. I get into my car and my poi is on the seat.
“I go home to my parents’ house and my little nephew is there and he’s trying to do the haka. So it is just everywhere. I’ve been brought up in it, I am it. A lot of people are kapa haka. It’s the embodiment of Māoritanga.”
She said her earliest memory of kapa haka was when she was around 3 and her parents were performing at Matatini 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 past behind me and just cracked up,” she told the university.
“She said, ‘It’s probably going to be you one day’.”
She received her moko kauae in 2016 to support and acknowledge her father and describes it as her gift to him.
Educated at Te Whare Kura o Rakaumanga in Huntly, Nga Wai received a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship in 2016, completing a Bachelor of Arts followed by a Master of Arts Degree with First Class Honours at Te Whare Wananga o Waikato (University of Waikato) in 2022.
Prior to her succession yesterday, Nga Wai has served in several governance roles as representative of the Kiingitanga, including the Te Kohanga Reo National Trust and the Waitangi National Trust.
The new Queen has been positioned next to her father’s casket during the tangihanga proceedings along with her mother, Te Makau Ariki Atawhai, as thousands of mourners come through the marae grounds to pay their respects to Kīngi Tūheitia.