The Meeting Place - A New Zealand History Blog

Recently, I appeared in the three-part documentary series Kiingitanga: The Untold Story that screened on Māori TV. Documenting the more than 150-year history of New Zealand’s Māori King movement, the series provides rich insights into the past, present and future of Aotearoa’s indigenous monarchy. Although Potatau Te Wherowhero was not installed as the first Māori King until 1858, the idea had much older roots, including the journeys to England by Pirikawau of Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Toa and later by Tamihana Te Rauparaha, son of famed Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha. Potatau Te Wherowhero, by George French Angas Pirikawau, who visited England in 1843, and Tamihana Te Rauparaha who made the same journey nine years later, would have witnessed an empire at the height of its powers. Both men returned to New Zealand with an enormous respect for the British monarchy that ruled over the empire and both thought that Māori could do no better than to appoint a monarch of their own. For P...