Māori King movement

The Māori King movement, called the Kīngitanga in Māori, is a Māori movement that arose among some of the Māori iwi (tribes) of New Zealand in the central North Island in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarchy of the United Kingdom as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land. The first Māori king, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, was crowned in 1858. The monarchy is non-hereditary in principle, although every monarch since Pōtatau Te Wherowhero has been a child of the previous monarch. The eighth monarch is Nga wai hono i te po, who was elected and crowned in September 2024.

The Māori monarch operates in a non-constitutional capacity outside the New Zealand government, without explicit legal or judicial power. Reigning monarchs retain the position of paramount chief of several iwi, and wield some power over these, especially within Tainui. The influence of the Māori monarch is widespread in Māoridom despite the movement not being adhered to by several major iwi, notably Tūhoe, Ngāti Porou, and the largest of all, Ngāpuhi. The headquarters for the King movement is Tūrangawaewae Marae in the town of Ngāruawāhia.

The movement arose among a group of central North Island iwi in the 1850s as a means of attaining Māori unity to halt the alienation of land at a time of rapid population growth by European colonists. The movement sought to establish a monarch who could claim status similar to that of Queen Victoria and thus provide a way for Māori to deal with Pākehā (Europeans) on equal footing. It took on the appearance of an alternative government with its own flag, newspaper, bank, councillors, magistrates and law enforcement. It was viewed by the colonial government as a challenge to the supremacy of the monarchy of the United Kingdom, leading in turn to the 1863 invasion of the Waikato, which was partly motivated by a drive to neutralise the Kīngitanga's power and influence. Following their defeat at Ōrākau in 1864, the Kingites withdrew into the Ngāti Maniapoto tribal region of the North Island that became known as the King Country.