Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō, or, as people shouted enthusiastically as news of her elevation spread, “Ngāwai! Ngāwai!”, is the new Māori monarch. She is only the second woman chosen to sit upon the Kīngitanga throne and, at 27 years of age, is the second-youngest monarch in the institution’s 166 year history.
There will be many who say that the royal council’s choice of a young Māori woman of 27 is entirely appropriate. Māori are a young people – the median age of tangata whenua is, you guessed it, 27 – and they deserve to be led into an uncertain and potentially fractious future by one of their own. Others will wonder aloud whether Queen Ngāwai, in spite of being ‘groomed’ for the role at King Tūheitia’s side, possesses the experience and judgement to navigate the Kīngitanga’s waka safely through New Zealand’s increasingly choppy political waters.
