Coronation of the Māori King marks 18 years of leadership of Kīngitanga

The New Zealand flag and Tino rangatiratanga flag on Harbour Bridge.

Source: Stug.stug / Wikimedia.

Held at Ngāruawāhia every year since the crowning of the very first Māori King, Te Koroneihana is an annual celebration, held at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Waikato, commemorating the anniversary of the coronation of the Māori King Tūheitia. The annual, week-long celebration began on Friday, August 16. 

Māori King Tūheitia leads the Kīngitanga, or the Māori King Movement, a movement which arose among some iwi in the central North Island in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the British colonists, and halt the alienation of Māori land. 

Since 2006, the Koroneihana has started a day early on August 15, with a memorial dinner in memory of the King's mother, and celebrations would begin with a tinge of sadness, as Thursday marked 18 years since the death of the Māori Queen Dame Te Atairangikāhu.  

The ceremony begun in her honour, and this year, the kawe mate, a mourning ceremony held after the tangihanga and burial, was honoured on Friday and Saturday. Ngira Simmonds, the Kīngitanga chief of staff, said “they are traditional and it is an opportunity to gather and remember those who have passed in the year gone by.” 

The Kīngitanga were prepared to host between 5000 and 7000 people each day, and everybody is welcomed. Although there are certain kaupapa scheduled for each day, no one is ever turned away. 

Politicians are also welcomed, including prime minister Christopher Luxon, who attended on Monday when Māori issues were top of the agenda in face-to-face discussions, and was told directly, “you have thrown Māori under the bus”.   

Kīngitanga spokesperson, Rahui Papa, said "It's not all doom and gloom, there are areas [where] we are collaborating across the various iwi of the motu, but there are some things of national moment that we need to unequivocally state our position." 

The Koroneihana was a celebration of being Māori and a celebration of coming together, Papa said, and this year was particularly meaningful. "After the Covid-19 situation we didn't have to sit together, to talk together, to eat together, to discuss together, but over the last couple of years we've had that opportunity back," he said, and community means that much more after isolation.