New Zealand’s Māori King, Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, died on August 30, 2024 at age 69, days after the celebration of his 18th year on the throne.
Key points
- He was the 7th monarch in the Kiingitanga movement, holding a position created in 1858 to unite New Zealand’s Indigenous Māori tribes in the face of British colonization.
- The Kiingitanga movement’s primary goals were to end the sale of land to non-Indigenous people, stop inter-tribal warfare, and provide a springboard for the preservation of Māori culture.
- The monarch has a largely ceremonial but still consequential role in New Zealand, where Māori make up close to 20% of the population.
- The week before Tuheitia’s death, thousands traveled to Turangawaewae Marae, the Māori King Movement headquarters in the town of Ngāruawāhia, for annual celebrations of the king’s ascension to the throne.
- The seat of the king is held by the Tainui tribes in the Waikato region.
