A woman with traditional face markings stands smiling in front of a background featuring people holding flags. The text reads, "Spinoff Waitangi 2025" with dates. The scene suggests a cultural event.

Kuīni Ngawai hono i te po (Design: Liam Rātana)

ĀteaFebruary 5, 2025

What does the future hold for the Kīngitanga and te Tiriti?

Ātea editor

Kuīni Ngawai hono i te po (Design: Liam Rātana)

Kuīni Ngawai hono i te po has attended her first Waitangi commemorations as the Māori monarch, continuing the legacy of kotahitanga championed by her late father. Liam Rātana reports.

Our Waitangi 2025 coverage is possible because of the 13,000-plus Spinoff members who regularly pay to support our work. If you aren’t a member yet, now is the time.

It has been just over two months since Kuīni Ngawai hono i te po emerged to lead the Toitū Te Tiriti hīkoi on its final legs to parliament. Only her second major public appearance since ascending to the throne last year, her presence was more than symbolic. For those familiar with the Kīngitanga, it was a statement: the movement remains at the forefront of Māori aspirations for mana motuhake.

Like her father, Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, Kuīni Ngawai has made her support clear for Māori-led movements towards self-determination. Speaking at last year’s hīkoi, Kīngitanga chief of staff Ngira Simmonds reiterated a key message from Kīngi Tūheitia’s final koroneihana celebrations – discussions on the future of Māori sovereignty should be led by the people.

“Take it away from the politicians and put it in the hands of the people – that remains our firm hope moving forward,” Simmonds said.

Momentum for such change is building. In May last year, following an earlier hīkoi to parliament, Te Pāti Māori issued a “declaration of political independence”, calling for the establishment of a Māori parliament. More recently, leaders from across te ao Māori convened to discuss the formation of Te Whare o Te Rangatiratanga, a pan-Māori assembly emerging from months of hui-ā-motu dedicated to advancing mana motuhake.

Yesterday, Kuīni Ngawai hono i te po was welcomed to Waitangi for the first time as Māori monarch, receiving a warm reception from her northern relations. Her visit marked a return to Te Hiku-o-te-Ika, following a recent haerenga as part of the kawemate for her late father. The queen’s whakapapa ties to the north run deep – her great-great-grandmother Kiritokia Paraone, the grandmother of Whatumoana Paki Sr (husband to Te Arikinui Te Atairangikaahu), hailed from Waimanoni near Kaitāia.

Wherever the Kīngitanga moves, it does so with presence. Busloads of supporters, clad in the movement’s signature black and blue-and-gold tartan, arrived at Waitangi to accompany the queen. It marked the Kīngitanga’s second successive year at the commemorations, breaking a two-decade absence that ended in 2024 when Kīngi Tūheitia travelled to Waitangi. The return came in the wake of a challenge at Rātana from government minister Shane Jones, who had framed Waitangi as the place for vigorous political discourse.

A traditional Māori ceremony is taking place on a lush green field. Participants, some wearing cultural attire and holding spears, are kneeling. A large gathering observes against a backdrop of water and islands under a cloudy sky. — Pōwhiri mō te Kīngitanga ki Waitangi (Pikitia: Supplied)

“If people want to debate in a robust set of exchanges… then please come to Waitangi,” Jones said at the time.

This year, amid ongoing political turbulence, a contested Treaty principles bill, and the continuing pursuit of kotahitanga and mana motuhake, the Kīngitanga returned to the political centre of Te Tai Tokerau – this time led by Kuīni Ngawai hono i te po.

A crowd of around 300 gathered under the summer sun on the lawns of Te Whare Rūnanga for the pōwhiri, which began shortly after 2pm. The haukāinga, including men, women and children, held hoe and rākau as they chanted and performed a haka pōwhiri for the Kīngitanga rōpū.

Labour MP Peeni Henare, son of Te Tai Tokerau, formally welcomed the queen and her contingent, followed by well-respected Northland kaumatua Taipari Munro, who acknowledged Kīngi Tūheitia’s passing and the queen’s recent trip to Te Aupōuri.

“Hoki ki te kāinga (we have returned home),” said Waikato-Tainui executive chair Tukoroirangi Morgan, recognising the queen’s strong links to Te Tai Tokerau.

Morgan also warned of the challenges ahead for te ao Māori, urging vigilance while reaffirming the role of the Kīngitanga in strengthening relationships between Māori and Pākehā. In a lighthearted moment, he spoke of uniting “the rivers of Waikato with those of Te Tai Tokerau”, teasing Far North mayor Moko Tepania about finding a Tainui wahine, which prompted laughter from the crowd.

Ngāti Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber followed, emphasising whakapapa ties between his iwi and the north, with the iwi’s tupuna Kahungunu himself born in Kaitāia. He reiterated Morgan’s point about the late Kīngi Tūheitia’s leadership in opening the door to kotahitanga and the need for the mahi to continue.

A common theme among speakers was the queen’s recent appointment to the Kōhanga Reo National Trust, alongside reflections on the recent passing of kōhanga reo stalwart Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi.

Earlier in the day, Te Pāti Māori announced its push for a Treaty commissioner – a policy that aligned closely with the sentiments shared on the taumata about the government’s recognition of te Tiriti. As Te Pāti Māori continues its quest for mana motuhake within parliament, the Kīngitanga and Kuīni Ngawai hono i te po carry forward the legacy of kotahitanga – a cause Kīngi Tūheitia championed throughout his reign.

Addressing the crowd, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi spoke of the joint aspirations of previous Māori leaders for a Māori parliament, and questioned when te ao Māori would push through to finally bring these dreams to fruition.

With her first Waitangi commemorations as Māori monarch now behind her, the question remains as to what role Kuīni Ngawai will play in the shifting tides of tino rangatiratanga. The next steps for the Kīngitanga, and its relationship with the evolving political landscape of Aotearoa, are only just beginning to take shape.

This is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ On Air.

Keep going!

Christopher Luxon’s absence has become a point of indifference (Image: Getty Images, treatment: The Spinoff)

ĀteaFebruary 5, 2025

No prime minister, no problem: Māori prepare for big day at Waitangi

Lyric Waiwiri-Smith

Politics reporter

Christopher Luxon’s absence has become a point of indifference (Image: Getty Images, treatment: The Spinoff)

Should he or shouldn’t he? Christopher Luxon’s decision to skip out on visiting the Treaty Grounds for Waitangi Day has been criticised, but those on the ground are continuing as usual.

Our Waitangi 2025 coverage is possible because of the 13,000-plus Spinoff members who regularly pay to support our work. If you aren’t a member yet, now is the time.

The lawns of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds will be trodden on a hundred times over today. The sun over the Bay of Islands will scorch the fields below, the sun will kiss and sweat out skins and turn the heat up on celebrations until tensions are hot enough to burst or melt. At the Upper Treaty Grounds, parliamentarians will attend a pōwhiri in the morning, strapping in for hours of talks and challenges between MPs and iwi leaders.

The prime minister, meanwhile, will be preparing to look out over different waters: the Banks Peninsula, where on the east coast of the bay lies Ōnuku Marae, about 15km from Akaroa. He’ll spend Waitangi Day with Ngāi Tahu, the iwi to which his newly minted minister for the South Island, James Meager, belongs. Where Ngāti Rangiāmoa chief Iwikau and Ngāi Te Kahukura and Ngāi Tūāhuriri chief Hōne Tīkao (under the name John Love) signed te Tiriti on May 30, 1840. In a statement, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu said they expected “hundreds” to be in attendance in Akaroa for this year’s celebrations.

In Luxon’s place on the Treaty Grounds will be minister for Māori development Tama Potaka, who told reporters in parliament he was expecting “hard kōrero, but also a welcoming atmosphere”.

“My view has always been [that] the people of Te Tai Tokerau show enormous manaakitanga and aroha to manuhiri like myself who visit the rohe from time to time,” Potaka said.

Christopher Luxon, Tama Potaka, Shane Jones, David Seymour and Paul Goldsmith at Waitangi 2024.

Asked how he’ll handle the “hard kōrero” without his leader, Potaka said that he’ll just be one of many senior National MPs on the ground, alongside Shane Reti and Paul Goldsmith. “We won’t be up there just for one day or one pōwhiri, we’ll be there for many days, so there’s quite a degree of opportunities for us to liaise with and engage with whānau, hapū and iwi in the rohe,” he said.

In the NZ Herald on Tuesday, opposition leader Chris Hipkins slammed Luxon’s decision, writing “a more divided country will be his legacy”. Speaking with the Herald, Waitangi National Trust board chairman Pita Tipene said hard feelings over Luxon’s snub had now “died a natural death”, though “two out of three [Winston Peters and David Seymour] ain’t bad”. Te Pāti Māori’s Rawiri Waititi had already labelled Luxon a “drop-nuts” for his decision in parliament.

Other commentators have criticised the timing, off the back of tensions over the Treaty principles bill and Luxon’s own admittance that Māori-Crown relations are “probably worse” since the coalition government came into power.

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson, who made her return to politics following her breast cancer diagnosis at the Treaty Grounds on Monday, said she believes the prime minister has a duty to honour the significance of the site on Waitangi Day. “It’s a way of acknowledging the people of the North, but [also] the nation,” Davidson said. “The significance that this place holds, it’s expected for prime ministers to be able to show up and be accountable for their actions, and actually, to front up to people”.

A short history of Waitangi no-shows

Luxon’s decision to skip out on the Treaty Grounds follows that of the last National party prime minister, Bill English, who spent Waitangi 2017 at Auckland’s Takaparawhau/Bastion Point with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. A year prior, English’s predecessor John Key had skipped out on attending the formalities following a fallout with Māori activists over the Trans-Pacific Partnership – Steven Joyce was left to cop a dildo to the face instead.

Te Whare Rūnanga (photo: Te Aihe Butler)

From 1996 to 1998, official Waitangi Day celebrations were held at Government House, following a tense year on the Treaty Grounds. Prime minister Jim Bolger and his cohort were jostled by protestors who took issue with Bolger’s proposed billion-dollar cap to settle historical Treaty claims. “There can be no going back to commemorate and celebrate Waitangi as it was,” Bolger said in 1995. “That is over”.

Helen Clark, who vowed not to visit the Treaty Grounds after being brought to tears when activist Titewhai Harawira (Ngāpuhi) questioned her right to speak in 1998, did not return to the site until 2004, when government and oppositions MPs were jostled and met with mud slings in response to the Foreshore and Seabed Act. In 2000 she, like Luxon soon will, spent Waitangi at Ōnuku Marae, and from 2005 she opted to miss out on visiting celebrations to instead host her own walkabouts on the Treaty Grounds.

Who leads instead?

On Tuesday, the Kīngitanga arrived, for Ngawai hono i te po’s first Waitangi Day as Kuīni. The Kīngitanga, though not traditionally followed by many major iwi across Aotearoa, has seen a significant rise in influence since the Hui-ā-Motu hosted by the late Kīngi Tūheitia in January 2024. Some hope Ngawai hono i te po may even have enough influence to sway government policy in the future.

Today, when the parliamentarians arrive, Luxon’s absence will leave room for Act and New Zealand First to carve out their own positions on the relationship between Māori and the Crown – though the strength of NZ First’s Shane Jones’ and Winston Peters’ names in the North carry significantly more weight than that of Act leader David Seymour, whose own hapū, Ngāti Rēhia, had asked him to stay away from Waitangi. Seymour’s Treaty principles bill will be on the tip of everyone’s tongues come time for debating on the marae.

Ngawai hono i te po is welcomed onto Te Whare Rūnanga (Photo: Te Aihe Butler)

Luxon’s absence arguably also leaves room for the opposition to have a stronger voice in debates. Their united stance against the Treaty principles bill and criticism of the government will only add to the frustration voiced by iwi leaders, and the subject of Luxon’s absence will likely make be easy fodder for the day’s speakers.

Community-focused events have grown at Waitangi in recent years, with this year’s celebrations including multiple talks and performances, and Toitū Te Tiriti “activations” throughout the week. On the lower Treaty Grounds, the Waitangi Forum Tent has days of talks hosted by iwi from Te Tai Tokerau, and other influential Māori speaking on tino rangatiratanga, economic freedom and more issues specific to tangata whenua.

Speaking on a panel for Ngāpuhi, the Greens’ Hūhana Lyndon, whose influence in Te Tai Tokerau is boosted by her former roles as CEO of Ngāti Wai Trust Board and Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust, encouraged listeners to save their energy for ensuring the strength of their own communities and kainga, and to “ignore the Crown and focus on ourselves”.