Dame Te Ata, 75, Maori Queen And Promoter of Their Culture
Published: August 16, 2006
Dame Te Ata, queen of New Zealand's indigenous Maori population, died Tuesday, her family announced. She was 75.
The queen, whose full name was Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, was the seventh Maori sovereign, a descendant of a royal line that began in 1858, when the Maori responded to Britain's colonization by choosing a monarch of their own. The ceremonial role is highly respected by most Maori.
Dame Te Ata was the longest-serving head of the Kingitanga movement, which was largely a response to continual land losses as European settlers flocked to New Zealand.
Dame Te Ata, who lived on North Island, became queen in May 1966, on the day her father, King Koroki Te Rata Mahuta Tawhiao, was buried.
She raised the profile of Maori overseas, acting as cultural ambassador for indigenous people and as hostess to royal and diplomatic visitors to New Zealand, dining with dignitaries like Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
No successor was immediately announced. The next monarch is to be chosen from among her kin in the Kingitanga movement. Maori make up about 540,000 of the country's four million people.
The queen was identified in 1999 as New Zealand's wealthiest Maori, with her worth put at $5.7 million.
In February 2005, she was admitted to Waikato Hospital for surgery for kidney stones. She began dialysis treatment for diabetes this year. She was hospitalized weeks after the celebration of the 40th anniversary of her coronation, in May.
Dame Te Ata is survived by her husband, Prince Whatumoana Paki, and by two sons and five daughters.
Funeral plans were not immediately announced, but Maori sovereigns are traditionally buried on Taupiri Mountain, near the settlement at Ngaruawahia.
Photo: Dame Te Ata (Photo by Wayne Drought/New Zealand Press Association, via Associated Press )