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Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, King of New Zealand's indigenous māori has died on Friday, according to his representatives. He has died aged 69.
The king had been in the hospital recovering from heart surgery just days after celebrating the 18th anniversary of his coronation, the statement added. He had experienced poor health including cancer and diabetes in recent years.
The position of Māori monarch originated in 1858 during a movement known as Kiingitanga that aimed to strengthen indigenous resistance to colonialism. Considered the chief of several tribes, the monarch does not have judicial or legal authority but plays an important ceremonial role.
The Māori community, which accounts for nearly a fifth of New Zealand’s more than 5 million population, often faces discrimination that results in poorer health and education outcomes and higher rates of incarceration.
In January, Tuheitia hosted more than 10,000 Māori for talks on how to respond to government plans to cancel reforms that were seen by many indigenous people as undermining their rights, Reuters reported at the time.
New Zealand’s right-wing government has proposed dissolving the country’s Māori Health Authority, rolling back the use of the Māori language and ending limits on tobacco sales – a move Māori leaders had sought to cut high rates of smoking in their community.
The king was born as Tuheitia Paki in 1955 in the North Island town of Huntly and was educated in Waikato and Auckland.
He was crowned on August 21, 2006, following the death of his mother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.
Tuheitia will lie in state at Turangawaewae Marae, headquarters of the Kiingitanga, for five days before being taken to his final resting place on the sacred burial site of Mount Taupiri.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon led tributes to Tuheitia and said the country would mourn the king’s death.
Lewis Musonye
