Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu
In May 2008, thousands of Māori gathered at Ngāruawāhia to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the formation of the Kīngitanga, or Māori King movement. The longest-serving of the eight Māori monarchs has been Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, who celebrated the 40th jubilee of her coronation on 23 May 2006, a few months before her death.
The Māori King movement is an enduring expression of Māori unity that today has an established place in New Zealand society. This has not always been the case. In the Waikato War of the 1860s the government attempted to destroy the movement, which it saw as a threat to the authority of the British Crown.
