Bare-chested warriors in canoes brought the late queen of New Zealand's indigenous Maori to her burial site as haunting notes rang out from conches yesterday, hours after tribal elders named her son as the new monarch.
The events were the culmination of a six-day national mourning period for Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, who died last Tuesday at age 75. Thousands of people have paid their respects for the beloved monarch.
The casket bearing the queen was paddled for several kilometers down the Waikato River in a canoe by warriors in long grass skirts for burial on sacred Taupiri Mountain.
PHOTO: AP
Tribal leaders named the late queen's eldest son, Te Arikinui Tuheitia Paki, as the new Maori king.
King Tuheitia Paki is the seventh Maori monarch from the same family -- a line of sovereigns stretching back to 1858 when Maori selected their first king to unite their tribes as they struggled to retain ownership of their land amid an influx of British immigrants to the then-English colony.
Wearing his mother's feather cloak, Paki, 51, was sat on an ornate carved wooden throne beside her casket shortly before the funeral service began in Ngaruawahia village on North Island.
In his coronation ceremony, he was touched on his head with a Christian Bible in a royal tradition -- the same Bible used to crown the six previous Maori monarchs.
Moments before his crowning, a crowd of thousands was asked whether he should be king. "Ai [yes]," they replied.
Until yesterday a university senior manager and cultural adviser, King Tuheitia has a wife, Te Atawhai, and three children.
Following Maori tradition, the new monarch was named ahead of the start of the queen's funeral ceremonies at Turangawaewae Marae, the tribal meeting place, in Ngaruawahia Village after being chosen by tribal leaders in secret meetings in recent days.
In the funeral procession, a dozen canoes representing all Maori tribes paddled down the river with her casket.
Teams of eight warriors, heads wrapped with mourning wreaths made of leaves, carried the queen's casket shoulder-high from the flax-covered bier up the rugged mountainside to the summit. Ahead of them, teams of young men with ropes attached to the coffin helped lift it up the steep slopes.
Thousands of people lined the foot of the mountain and route to the summit, wailing karakia (mourning calls) and haka (war chants) as the coffin passed, followed by the queen's close family.
The ceremonies were broadcast nationwide on television.
At the funeral service, messages of condolence were read from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, her son Prince Charles, Pope Benedict XVI and several Pacific Island leaders.
"Dame Te Ata gave a lifetime of service and dedication," Queen Elizabeth said in her message. "Her leadership, dignity and compassion will long be remembered."
Prime Minister Helen Clark was among dignitaries at the service.
Afterward, as the late Queen Te Ata's coffin was closed by attendants, three white doves were released, signifying her departing spirit.
One dove sat on the ground, only flying away after the coffin lid had been closed -- seen by Maori mourners as a sign of the reluctance of their queen to leave them.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate