The Maori of New Zealand named a new monarch on Thursday, selecting a 27-year-old queen in a symbolic but weighty role as some of the Indigenous group’s hard-fought rights have been rolled back.

       Nga Wai Hono i te Po succeeds her father, Kiingi Tuheitia, who died last week after 18 years as king and was laid to rest in funeral rites that ended Thursday. The new queen, his youngest daughter, is the eighth Maori monarch since the role was created in 1858 to unite the tribes as European settlers encroached.

       She was chosen by Maori leaders and introduced on Thursday in a ceremony before thousands gathered for Kiingi Tuheitia’s last rites, the Kiingitanga, the Maori King Movement, said in a statement.

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