New Zealand’s Maori Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has died at the age of 69.
Aides for the king of the country’s Indigenous Maori people said he died in hospital on Friday.
He had been recovering from heart surgery just days after celebrating the 18th anniversary of his coronation.
“The death of Kiingi Tuheitia is a moment of great sadness,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “A chief who has passed to the great beyond. Rest in love.”
The Kiingitanga – Maori King movement – was founded in 1858 with the aim of uniting New Zealand’s Indigenous Maori under a single sovereign.
The position has significant political and symbolic weight, but no legal status.
New Zealand media reported the king’s funeral was likely to take place next Thursday and that he would be buried alongside his mother, Queen Dame Te Atairangikaahu, and previous Maori kings on the sacred Taupiri Mountain.
Tuheitia succeeded his mother in 2006 to become the seventh Kiingitanga monarch, although the position is not necessarily hereditary.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon led the tributes as flags on government and public buildings were flown at half-mast.
“Today, we mourn,” Luxon said in a statement from Tonga, where he is attending the Pacific Islands Forum.
“His unwavering commitment to his people and his tireless efforts to uphold the values and traditions of the Kiingitanga have left an indelible mark on our nation.
“I will remember his dedication to Aotearoa New Zealand, his commitment to mokopuna [young people], his passion for te ao Maori [customs], and his vision for a future where all people are treated with dignity and respect.”
Britain’s King Charles III, New Zealand’s formal head of state, said he was “shocked” by the news, having recently spoken to King Tuheitia by phone.
“My wife and I were profoundly saddened to learn of the death of Kiingi Tuheitia,” the king said in a statement.
“I had the greatest pleasure of knowing Kiingi Tuheitia for decades.
“He was deeply committed to forging a strong future for Maori and Aotearoa-New Zealand founded upon culture, traditions and healing, which he carried out with wisdom and compassion,” he said, using the country’s Maori and English-language names.
There are some 900,000 Maori people in New Zealand, about 17 percent of the population.
The Maori monarch has been a powerful voice on the legacy of colonialism.
The arrival of Europeans in New Zealand plunged the country into a conflict that ended in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi between the British and hundreds of Maori chiefs.
The document is considered the country’s founding document and granted the Maori the same rights as British subjects and authority over “taonga” or treasures that can be intangible.
The next king is likely to be chosen by the heads of tribes or iwi associated with the Kiingitanga at the end of next week’s tangihanga, or funeral rites, according to Radio New Zealand. The event is expected to last for at least five days.
