The Māori Queen, Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace on Thursday in her first audience with the British monarch since she succeeded her father as the head of the Kīngitanga in September 2024.
Kīngitanga spokesperson Rahui Papa described the meeting as heartfelt, with conversation moving from the passing of her father, the late Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, to the aspirations that surround Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the country edges toward the 200 year anniversary of its signing in 2040.
A Kīngitanga spokesperson said Te Arikinui is focused on strong relationships between peoples as Aotearoa New Zealand approaches the 200 year anniversary. The same spokesperson confirmed that commemoration of the 2040 milestone was among the items discussed during the audience.
The Buckingham Palace meeting caps a quietly remarkable week of royal engagements for the 29 year old monarch, who has been in London for the 50th anniversary celebrations of The King’s Trust, the youth charity founded by then Prince of Wales Charles in 1976. Earlier in the week she met the Prince of Wales, William, at Windsor Castle. According to her office, it was the first time a Māori monarch had been received at Windsor. Prince William posted on his social channels that the encounter had been a pleasure.
Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po was chosen as the eighth monarch of the Kīngitanga on 5 September 2024, six days after the death of her father at Tūrangawaewae Marae. She is the second queen in the movement’s history, following her paternal grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, who reigned from 1966 until 2006. Her selection was made by Tekau-mā-rua, the council of senior chiefs who deliberate on the succession, rather than by any automatic hereditary claim.
The new monarch is in many ways the most academically credentialed leader the Kīngitanga has had. She attended Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga, the Māori medium school in Huntly, before completing a Bachelor of Arts in Tikanga Māori and Reo Māori at the University of Waikato in 2017 and a Master’s degree in the same fields in 2020. She was 27 when she succeeded her father.
The Buckingham Palace audience sits inside a long timeline. According to Kīngitanga, Te Arikinui is following in the footsteps of her tūpuna and continuing eight generations of engagement with the British Royal Household. That timeline reaches back to Kiingi Tāwhiao, the second Māori king, who travelled to London in 1884 with a delegation of rangatira to petition Queen Victoria over the confiscation of Waikato lands. As Te Ara records, Tāwhiao was not granted an audience with the Queen herself. He instead met the Earl of Derby, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, who referred the petition back to the New Zealand government on the grounds that the imperial government no longer had responsibility for such matters. Tāwhiao acknowledged the Queen’s supremacy in that meeting but defined his own kingship as uniting Māori as one people in order to claim the Queen’s protection.
The relationship with the present King is, by contrast, more familiar. The two have met before. In 2022, while she was still Princess Nga wai hono i te po and Charles was still Prince of Wales, they met in London at a Royal Trust function. Kiingi Tuheitia was also a regular visitor to the Royal Household during his 18 year reign.
The substance of Thursday’s conversation, as relayed by the Kīngitanga office, focused on two themes. The first was personal, an exchange about Kiingi Tuheitia, who reigned from 2006 until his death on 30 August 2024 following heart surgery in Hamilton. The second was constitutional. The 200 year anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi falls in 2040, and the Kīngitanga has signalled that it wants the commemoration to be an occasion for both Crowns, British and Māori, to reflect on the relationship the document created and the obligations it placed on each.
Rahui Papa told 1News that the discussion ranged across the aspirations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi as it nears the 200 year mark, and that commemoration of the anniversary had been talked about between the King and Te Arikinui.
The visit also featured the more public business of The King’s Trust 50th anniversary. The trust was set up by Charles in 1976 and now operates as a global network. According to King’s Trust Group figures, more than 1.3 million young people have been helped by the trust around the world since it began. The Aotearoa New Zealand arm runs employment, enterprise and education programmes for young New Zealanders, including the He Kākano youth enterprise initiative, which has funded more than 100 youth led businesses to date. Te Arikinui addressed the 50th anniversary gathering on what her office described as the power of indigenous knowledge and intergenerational stewardship in tackling global environmental and social challenges.
Te Arikinui returns to New Zealand later this month. The first major fixture of her year at home is the annual Koroneihana at Tūrangawaewae in October, where she will mark the anniversary of her own accession and deliver the address that the country uses to read where she intends to steer the Kīngitanga. Thursday’s audience at Buckingham Palace will be one of the data points by the time that address is given.
Was the Crown to Crown handshake significant? The Kīngitanga has every reason to say so, and so does the Palace. With Te Tiriti’s 200th now firmly on both calendars, the value of keeping the line warm appears to be mutual.
What do you think of Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po’s first audience with King Charles, and how would you like to see the two Crowns mark Te Tiriti’s 200 year anniversary in 2040? Let us know in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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