Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has been laid to rest in New Zealand and his youngest child and only daughter has been named as the new Māori monarch.

Kuini Nga Wai Hono i te Po was raised up in a ceremony known as te Whakawahinga, in front of thousands of people gathered to mourn Kiingi Tuheitia. 

She is the second woman to be named monarch and the second youngest person to hold the position in the 160-year history of the Māori royal movement. 

A bible was placed on her head — the same bible used to anoint the first Māori King Pootatau Te Wherowhero in 1858.

On Thursday morning, Archbishop Don Tamihere said a karakia — or chant — and used sacred oils to bestow prestige, sacredness, power and spiritual essence upon Kuini Nga Wai Hono i te Po.

The anointing ceremony — or te Whakawahinga — was followed by a funeral service for Kiingi Tuheitia after which he was carried by waka to a sacred burial ground on Mount Taupiri on New Zealand's North Island.

Chair of the advisory council for Kiingtanga — the Māori king movement — Che Wilson said Te Whakawahinga was an important ceremony dating back for eight generations to Pootatau Te Wherowhero.

"We follow the tikanga of our ancestors who created the Kiingitanga to unify and uplift our people and we have chosen Nga Wai Hono i te Po as our new monarch," Mr Wilson said.

For seven generations one family has held the position of New Zealand's Māori monarch.

While there is no official hereditary succession, it would have been a break from a long-held tradition if the next Māori monarch wasn't one of Kiingi Tuheitia's children.

Kiingi Tuheitia was crowned in August 2006 and died just days after celebrating his 18th year in the role. 

Kuini Nga Wai Hono i te Po, 27, was named as his successor as five days of funeral rites for Kiingi Tuheitia culminate in his burial.

The former truck driver was in hospital recovering from heart surgery in late August when he died peacefully aged 69, surrounded by his wife and children.

Thousands of mourners gathered to pay their respects as his funeral procession — including ceremonial wakas, or canoes — made its way towards the burial grounds.

After about two hours, they reached Taupiri Mountain, and Kiingi Tuheitia was laid to rest alongside generations of his ancestors and former Māori monarchs.

There's been a Māori monarch for much of New Zealand's history, each facing different challenges during their time.

For Kiingi Tuheitia, the country's fracturing race relations was a focus.

In January, he held the first national hui (meeting of Māori) in a decade, after it emerged there was a controversial proposal from one of the leaders within New Zealand's coalition government to redefine the country's founding document — the Treaty of Waitangi.

There has also been strong resistance to changes around Māori health initiatives and the use of Māori language (te reo Māori) — one of New Zealand's official languages.

"The best protest we can do right now is be Māori, be who we are, live our values, speak our reo, care for our mokopuna (young folk)," Kiingi Tuheitia told the hui.

History of the Māori king movement

Known in te reo Māori as Kiingitanga, the Māori king movement was created in 1858.

"Its primary goals were to cease the sale of land to Paakehaa (New Zealanders of European descent), stop inter-tribal warfare, and provide a springboard for the preservation of Māori culture in the face of Paakehaa colonisation," according to the tribe of Kiingi Tuheitia.

Kiingitanga is largely ceremonial and symbolic, but is an important movement in New Zealand. 

Before Kiingi Tuheitia was crowned in August 2006, there were five kings and one queen during the history of Kiingitanga.

The Tainui tribes in the Waikato have held the seat of the Māori monarch since the first king, Potatau Te Wherowhero, who was the son of a warrior chief from the Waikato region.

He held the position for two years before being succeeded by his son, and this line has continued through all Māori monarchs.

Even though Kiingi Tuheitia took over from his mother in 2007, the first woman to hold the role and the longest-serving Māori monarch, the process isn't hereditary by default.

"The Kiingitanga was not a conquering monarchy, the king's tribe Waikato didn't conquer other tribes of Māoridom in pursuit of the kingship, it was a request from the other tribes and that tradition continues to this very day," Kiingitanga chief of staff Ngira Simmonds told New Zealand media. 

Five days of funeral rites

Kiingi Tuheitia has been lying in state for five days at his tribe's marae (meeting grounds), Tūrangawaewae Marae, which is also the official residence of the Māori monarch.

During that time, tens of thousands of mourners came to pay their respects, New Zealand Green MP Kahurangi Carter told the ABC's Pacific Beat.

Tangihanga, or funeral rites, involve "a lot of singing and waiata (traditional songs to mark an important event)", she said.

"It's a true celebration of Kiingi Tuheitia's life and legacy and his whanau (extended family)." 

Ms Carter explained that tangihanga went for days as Māori believe the spirit of the dead "stays with the body".

Initially, only local tribes mourn, but in the following days, others will be welcomed to the marae, including politicians and international dignitaries.

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"We sit and we talk and we pray and we sing and we laugh, and often the body has adornments of beautiful cloaks," Ms Carter said. 

"That brings a lot of comfort for us."

Feathers and flax are carefully woven over a long time to make the cloaks.

"[They] take countless hours to make and this is part of the honour of the life that was lived," Ms Carter said.

As part of the mourning process, photos of Kiingi Tuheitia's forebears are also displayed.

"That is saying that, 'I do not stand alone, I stand with every generation and every ancestor that has come before me,'" Ms Carter said.

"These are things that give us strength in our time of sadness."

To help with their grief, women will join in a communal "guttural wail", Ms Carter explained. 

"That is something that is about releasing that sadness in a physical way, but it also has this ability to allow others to mourn and to be unapologetic in their grief," she said.

"It's part of the healing process and is part of being able to move forward."

Following the days of mourning and a large funeral procession, Kiingi Tuheitia was buried on Taupiri Mountain, about 7 kilometres north of Tūrangawaewae Marae.

A lot of other "strong Māori leaders", including Kiingi Tuheitia mother the former Māori queen, have been buried there too, Ms Carter said.

"That is about returning to the soil, returning to the whenua (traditional land)."

Kiingi Tuheitia and his wife Te Atawhai had three children  — a daughter and two sons.

Ms Carter was full of praise for Kuini Nga Wai Hono i te Po, the new Māori queen. 

"You can feel that genuineness from within, she's incredibly likeable, very smart and would be a wonderful queen," she told  the ABC's Pacific Beat.

Ms Carter said the new monarch will have to unite people from across the tribes and work to foster Kiingi Tuheitia's legacy.