Queen Nga Wai: New Zealand’s Maori anoint new leader

New Zealand's Maori chiefs has anointed a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country's Indigenous community.

Nga Wai hono i te po Paki was cheered by thousands as she ascended a high-backed wooden throne during an elaborate ceremony on the country's North Island on Thursday.

She is the youngest daughter of King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, who died on Friday after heart surgery.

After being selected by a council of chiefs, Nga Wai was ushered to the throne by a phalanx of bare-chested and tattooed men bearing ceremonial weapons — who chanted, screamed and shouted in acclamation.

Wearing a wreath of leaves, a cloak and a whalebone necklace, she sat beside her father's coffin as emotive rites, prayers and chants were performed.

The late king had laid in state for six days before being taken down the Waikato River on a flotilla of four war canoes each powered by more than a dozen rowers.

His funerary procession passed throngs of onlookers camped on the riverbank, before stopping at the foot of sacred Mount Taupiri.

From there, three rugby teams acted as pallbearers, shepherding his coffin up steep slopes to the summit and the final resting place of past Maori royals.

Passing the torch

The Maori monarch is a mostly ceremonial role with no legal status.

But it has enormous cultural, and sometimes political, significance as a potent symbol of Maori identity and kinship.

As the king's only daughter and his youngest child, Queen Nga Wai was perhaps considered an outside choice to become his successor.

One of her two elder brothers had taken on many ceremonial duties during their father's periods of ill health and had been tipped to take over.

"It is certainly a break from traditional Maori leadership appointments which tend to succeed to the eldest child, usually a male," Maori cultural advisor Karaitiana Taiuru said.

Taiuru said it was a "privilege" to witness a young Maori woman become queen, particularly given the ageing leadership and mounting challenges faced by the community.