Kyoda. I'm Georgina Campbell in for Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. Last week, kingny to Haitia, the seventh Maldi Monarch, passed away aged sixty nine, a little over a week after marking eighteen years of his reign. By his shock death has seen a week of morning at Turanga yy Madi, the official residence for the head of the kingy Tongua Movement, political leaders have paid their respects.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxen's voice broke with emotion when he spoke last week. He later explained to journalists.
I was just remembering some times that I had actually in the photo with him, and whenever I came, we always, you know, his wonderful wife arranged white bait fritters for me and it was lovely and so so I was just remembering that, and I was also thinking of the family. You know, you know, I've lost a husband, I've lost a dad, not just the king, but you know they've lost a family member as well. So for me, yeah, it was emotional as I was getting through my remarks.
Labor Party leader Chris Hipkins recalled a conversation with kingy to Hatia when he admitted being nervous about his too Dow Maldi and co Papa Maldi needing some work.
And I recall the advice that he gave to me at the time, and I've carried it with me ever since. He said, the important thing is that you try, and you'll get more respect from trying than from getting it perfect. And so I've remembered that.
Green Party co leader Chloe Smallbrick said he saw the nation we could be and invited us all to live up to it.
Can Ktahitanga on the national agenda as our guiding star to build thee that all of us deserve. His legacy is one of unity, kindness and truly listening to understand.
Tens of thousands of mourners from throughout the country have been at tudangaway Wi for the tongue hunger of the Maldi king and the Defense Force has been called in to feed them.
New Zealand Defense Force was requested through Tipunikooki by tung Awaiwimi to provide catering support and so we have behind me now a catering detachment of twenty eight personnel, nine vehicles and various pieces of equipment. Essentially, we have three field kitchens behind me and they have been providing support to the fighter Coo and wed A Hair for the multitudes that have arrived for King you Do Haitia's tongue Hunger.
The next Maldi monarch will officially be revealed this morning, just hours before King to Haitia is laid to rest. Proceedings will begin at Tu Dunga yy Madi at ten am. Kingy Too Haitia's funeral will then take place before his casket is taken to the banks of the Wykuttle River. A guard of honour will be there from members of Nati Mahanger and the New Zealand Defense Force for Waka will take the late King's casket along the river towards
his final resting place on Topity Mountain. The late King's casket will then be carried to the summit. Today on the front page to discuss the legacy of kingy To Haitia, we're joined by professor of Political science at Charles Sturt University, Dominic O'Sullivan. Dominic, can you start by explaining the background of the King Tunga movement For those who aren't familiar.
Well, it was established in the eighteen fifties in response to increase in colonization and in response to fears that perhaps from the government's perspective, to tidity your waiting, he wasn't going to be upheld, and promises contained in the agreement were promises that the government didn't see his binding. And it was thought that political unity among the different Dewy of New Zealand would be a good thing. It would be a way of being able to achieve more
coordinated and cohesive resistance to colonial expansion. And not all the we had agreed with this, but many did, and King to Hatia's ancestor port Tototo Federal Federal was chosen as the first king.
And how has the movement grown since then?
Well, it's always been very important to the world Tony people and other Ewi, but it does at different times take on great national significance. It is the longest continuing political institution in New Zealand outside Parliament. Parliament's only a few years older than kingy Tonga and King e tong Ha set me older than any of the political parties
that we have in Parliament at the moment. I think we saw in January when King two Ata called a meeting hue a Ewe to discuss how people might respond to the new government's treaty policies and genuine undermining of in general undermining of Maori culture and that who he attracted ten thousand people from all over the country. So it's a much bigger movement than just wyatt or tiny. It has that that broader significance, and I think that
simplicity of two Ata's messages is really important. At the coronation celebrations in August, for example, he made the really simple but far reaching observation that manamute haak needs that there's room for everybody. And you know that is a very powerful political statement. I think there's room for everybody, and that has far reaching policy implications that can test
the direction that the present government is taking. But also really I think creates a juxtaposition with the government's preference for a less cohesive, less united community and Quotahitanga unity is an enduring theme that the King Tunga brings into politics, and it does stand in quite significant contrast I think with the policy directions that the government is wanting to take at present.
Yes, and as you say, his death comes at a really difficult time for relationships between martyrdom and the Crown, largely driven by the Coalition government's policies. Are you able to expand on the policies that are challenging and what impact do you think, you know, the loss of his leadership could have in regards to those policies.
Well, I think the policies range from the petty to the potentially transformative. For example, one of the first policy priorities of the government was to diminish the use of the Maori language and the public service. We weren't allowed to say what a quarte we had to say the New Zealand Transport Agency because that was too much of a concession from the government's point of view, to a
Maori presence in the broader New Zealand culture. And at a more substantive level, we have the Treaty Principles Bill which the act Party is preparing to introduce, and that really rewrites the Treaty of White Honey. The proposed principles bear no relation at all to the original agreement and the intention is to diminish the Marii capacity and authority basically to be themselves to diminish Runga Teatunga, as one of the original treaty promises that Mary would retain authority
over their own affairs. So what the Treaty Principles Bill is intended to do is really create an assimilationist kind of policy regime where Mary participation in public life is conditional on not expressing themselves in a distinctively Mary way, not wanting to protect traditional environments and traditional authority, like I said, not really being allowed to protect the right
to be marty. So it creates, I think a class of citizenship for Mary people that doesn't reflect the promises of equality that tutility made, and that's why people are so worried about it. There are other measures like the repeal of section seven AA of the orung Atomiki Act that's the act that establishes ortung Atomariki as the government's
childcare and protection agency. And a succession of reports show that the state does a very very poor job looking after Mardi kids at risk, and this particular section of the legislation that the government has taken exception to is one that made sure that Maori people and Mary communities could take a leadership role in making decisions about how to look after kids who couldn't be looked after well by their their their parents, by involving grandparents and aunties
and uncles and other members of a child's world in their in their care and protection, instead of taking them off to strangers to be looked after or not looked after, as is often the case by by the state. It's quite interesting that you know that the act Party, for example, comes to politics with a general philosophy of small government. It seems to set that philosophy aside and want big government over mary lives and Mahi resources and so on,
big government in terms of diminishing the Mahdi language. And those are the sorts of things that people went to Tudanngawaiwei to air their concerns about back in January. As I said, ten thousand people attended. They're also the concerns that Tukta raised just as recently as last month that the annual celebrations to mark the anniversary for coronation. When he made that comment, there's room for everybody in that message.
I think what he was trying to say is that Madi people looking after their own kids when they're in trouble doesn't diminish the space that there is for other people to do their thing and to exercise their rights of citizenship and so on. His message really is that Marti people wanting to be Mary is not a threat to anybody. There's room for that, just as there's room for everyone body else.
Do you think that the government heard to Hata's message or that his passing might have any spay on the government's response in terms of its policies.
Well before the big Quebec in January, the National Party had indicated it wasn't too keen on the act Party's Treaty Principles Bill and would support it to a first reading in Parliament because that's what it had agreed to in the coalition agreement, but it wasn't too keen on going any further. But after that, Christopher Luxon came out and said quite categorically that the National Party wouldn't support
this legislation beyond a second reading. So that means although the bill will go to a select committee and people will be able to make their submissions, it won't be passed into law. And I think the size of the whoy that to Ato was able to convene was a significant influence on that decision, and I think the numbers of people that we're seeing in aadawaha this week is again that's a measure of people's support for the idea of for Tahitanga that Kingtunga has represented since its inception
back in eighteen fifty eight. You know, that might have some influence on the National Party. I don't think it'll have any influence on ACT or New Zealand. First, they represent a sector of the population that is probably not widely represented at Notawaha this week, you know, appealing to that that base remains important to those parties. But the National Party needs to attract support beyond its base, and it needs to attract the support of people who agree
with that statement. Is room for everybody, and the National Party, I think, to attract support beyond its space, and it needs to be mindful of those kinds of things and mindful of not wanting to cause unnecessary conflict. Whereas the ACT Party is very much ideologically focused. If to make its point it needs to generate conflict and as a result of that conflict, perhaps it doesn't do so well at the election next time. It's not so worried about that.
If the National Party generates conflict which diminishes its electoral support, that's a real problem for it going into the next election. It wants to be in government, and that's more important than perhaps what the act Party sees as the points of principle that it's advocating.
And as you say, that recent Hui is such a strong and recent example of kingy to Hatia's leadership. He was in this role for eighteen years, though, what are some of the highlights of that reign.
I think that is a highlight because at no prior point in the last eighteen years has the Treaty of Waitangi been undermined in the way that it has been in the last few months. At no point have things like the Mardi language been undermined in this way. So often, leadership is most obvious and most pronounced when there's a concrete political issue around which leaders can galvanize people, and we just haven't had that in the last eighteen years.
That's not to say that Marti crown relationships are always good. There are always points of contention, and we should expect that political relationship with different perspectives and different ideas conflict itself isn't necessarily a problem, but when it reaches the scale that the government has provoked in the last year or so, that does create space for leadership that just doesn't bear in ordinary times.
As the country mourns the death of King E Tuaia, attention is slowly turning to who will be his successor. But the Marti movement isn't as straightforward as traditional monarchs. It's not hereditary, and the king or queen is instead appointed by the leaders of the EWE involved in the Mali king movement known as the king E Tongue. Despite not needing to be, the monarchy has been hereditary in effect, as every new Marty monarch has been the previous monarch's heir.
The King's Council is meeting with EWE leaders this week and tod on a Yi and that I to discuss the criteria for two highs successor. The successor will likely be appointed on Thursday, the day of his funeral and before the burial. Now a successor and new monarch will be revealed this morning. Can you explain what the monarch role is in this system and how it works, what sort of duties or responsibilities does that monarch.
Have well, I think we go back to eighteen fifty eight when Portoitou became the first king and the point was called Teitong unity. So to provide a figurehead for that unity among erewe to provide more coordinated and cohesive resistance to colonial expansion. And in the eighteen fifties and sixties it was avert military aggression, the confiscation of lands and so on. You know, one of the King of Tongue Is main priorities between then and the settlement in
nineteen ninety five was to achieve that settlement. But it's a bigger purpose now. So it's a person that can command the respect of people across the country, across the Maori world and beyond. Is what makes this position an important one or conversely, what potentially diminishes it if the job is not well done.
So is it unity then that you think will be front of mind for those make that choice today?
I think so, and they'll be wanting to choose somebody that they have confidence to be able to make a contribution to that and to lead that objective.
Thanks so much for joining us, Dominik. That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories stinks of news coverage at inzidherld dot co dot inzid. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills. Dan Goodwin is the sound engineer. I'm Georgina Campbell. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or where of it you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.