Just a week after celebrating his Koroneihana, Pacific leaders return to Turangawaewae Marae for Kiingi Tuheitia’s Tangihanga.
The Tangihana of Kiingi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII was held last week.
Many Pacific leaders and community members from around the motu travelled to Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia to pay their respects.
Among those to attend was Labour Party Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni.
“You know, it’s difficult because here we are for the Tangi of Kiingi Tuheitia and I don’t think anyone really expected this to happen so soon,” she says.
Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono added leaves to his black fedora as a sign of mourning while reminiscing on the fact that he was at Turangawaewae Marae for the King’s Koroneihana celebrations just the week before.
“What really resonated with me was his love for the environment but also his love for the people,” Tuiono says.
“We were here just recently for the Koroneihana and now we’re back here to farewell him.
“I’ll remember him for his resilience. I will remember him for his humility.”
Wearing her traditional Tongan ta’ovala was Racheal Afeaki-Taumoepeau from the Waikato Pacific community who attended with her sons.
“We’re here to pay our respects and our condolences to Kiingi Tūheitia and the family of Waikato Tainui.
“Having lived in Hamilton for 17 years this is our home and so we’ve always had a close connection to Tūrangawaewae.
“We’ve visited here a number of times so you can imagine it’s incredibly sad to wake up late last week and hear that Kiingi Tūheitia passed away.”
From Auckland and leading the newly formed Pacific Council of Chiefs was former MP Hon Aupito William Sio. He attended alongside many other community leaders to pay their respects
“Why have we come today, because we’re kin to the Kiingitanga, to the Māori and those relationships that are maintained by the Kiingitanga. To the Cook Islands, to Tonga, to Tahiti, to Hawaii, to Fiji, to Samoa,” Aupito says.
“And so we’re coming here to pay our respects and to offer him and the grieving body of Tainui our love and our respect and to give them encouragement for the next monarch to continue his legacy of Kotahitanga and mana motuhake.”
As per Kiingitanga custom, the new monarch was announced on the morning of the burial.
Kiingi Tūheitia’s only daughter Ngā wai hono i te pō was invested as the new monarch.
One of her first roles as Kuini was to accompany her father’s casket on its final journey down the Waikato River to his final resting place.
Hundreds of mourners followed as Kiingi Tūheitia was carried on the shoulders of his warriors, up to the summit of Taupiri Mountain to the sacred urupa, his final resting place, alongside the Kings and Queen of the Kiingitanga.
