Author: Dominic O'Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University

The numbers attending the tangihanga for Kīngi Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII attest not only to the enduring significance of the Kīngitanga movement, but also to its political relevance at this point in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history. Tūheitia, the seventh Māori monarch, died on Friday at the age of 69. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was “somebody who tried to pull everyone together – Māori and non-Māori”. Luxon’s government, of course, has been accused of doing the very opposite through policies designed to limit Māori influence in public life. With the ACT Party’s hugely contentious Treaty Principles Bill about…