New Zealand’s new Māori queen has been crowned in a traditional ceremony which also saw her father King Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII laid to rest.
Ngā Wai hono i te pō, 27, the youngest child of the late monarch, became the second Māori kuini, or queen, in a tradition dating back to 1858.
Her father died on Friday following heart surgery, just days after the 18th anniversary of his coronation.
Mourners flocked to the North Island town of Ngāruawāhia, near Hamilton, on Thursday to pay final respects to the late monarch and witness the ascension to the throne of Queen Ngā Wai.
As she was escorted onto Tūrangawaewae marae - an ancestral meeting place, where her father's casket lay draped in feathered cloaks - cheers rang out among thousands crowded around TV screens outside and waiting along the banks of the Waikato River to glimpse the funeral procession.
After her ascension, Queen Ngā Wai accompanied the late king's coffin in a flotilla of traditional waka, or canoes, along the river as he was guided by Māori warriors to his final resting place.
The new queen holds a masters degree in Māori cultural studies and teaches kapa haka, the Māori term for performing arts.
“Our country will be in mourning,” said Chris Hipkins, leader of New Zealand’s opposition Labour party, shortly after the king's death.
“He was a fantastic king with a wicked sense of humour, but also a very good man… with a real focus on bringing New Zealanders together.”
New Zealand’s prime minister Christoper Luxon praised King Tuheitia as a leader "whose commitment to Māori and all New Zealanders has been felt right across the country".
But events marked the end of a week-long funeral rite for the late king, 69, who had in recent months rallied New Zealand's indigenous people to unity in the face of a more racially divisive National government under Mr Luxon.
He became king after his mother's death in 2006 and on Thursday was buried alongside her in an unmarked grave on Taupiri Maunga, a mountain of spiritual significance to his iwi, or tribe.
His daughter's ascension represents the rise of a new generation of Māori leaders in New Zealand, one which grew up steeped in a resurging language that had once almost died out.
The Kīngitanga, or Maori royalty movement, has a ceremonial mandate rather than a legal one and was formed after the British colonisation of New Zealand to unite tribes in resistance to forced sales of indigenous land and the loss of the Māori language, Te Reo, and culture.
After the centre-right National Party took power in New Zealand last November and began to enact policies reversing recognition of Te Reo, people and customs, the late monarch took the unusual step in January of calling a national meeting of tribes which was attended by 10,000 people.
"The best protest we can make right now is being Māori. Be who we are. Live our values. Speak our reo," he told them, using the Māori word for language.
"Just be Māori. Be Māori all day, every day. We are here. We are strong."
King Tūheitia urged New Zealanders to embrace the concept of kotahitanga - unity of purpose - in a cause that he said had "room for everyone".
His words were echoed throughout the days of his funeral, including by political leaders whose plans he had rallied to oppose.
In a reflection of the place that Te Reo and customs have grown to hold in New Zealand's public life in recent decades, his funeral was attended not only by iwi but by leaders of all political parties, past prime ministers, leaders of Pacific Island nations, diplomats and representatives of the British crown.
Tens of thousands of ordinary people also flocked there.
Many spoke to each other in Te Reo, a language that had steadily waned after colonisation until activists in the 1970s provoked its renaissance. Among their initiatives was the establishment of Māori language pre-schools, the first graduates of which are now young adults.
The late king, a truck driver before he took the throne, was a surprise appointment to the monarchy, which is chosen by a council and is not required to be hereditary.
But the new queen was groomed for the role and had accompanied her father in his work during recent years.
