In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Mahuta said she had not sought the foreign affairs job — “though it was on my long list,” she said — and had been surprised by the offer. She said she jumped at the chance to build New Zealand’s international reputation while working closely with “our Polynesian family across the Pacific.”
The region has become more important and more scrutinized in recent years as China’s influence and investment have increased.
American officials say Ms. Mahuta and her team — the defense minister, Peeni Henare, is also Maori — will be welcomed throughout the region as cultural equals and as a strong counterweight to Beijing.
Ms. Mahuta’s elevation is also being celebrated in the Maori community, which represents 17 percent of New Zealand’s population, even as her rise has revived old cultural divides.
In 2016, she became the first woman in Parliament to display a moko kauae (a sacred facial tattoo). But when her foreign affairs promotion was announced, a conservative New Zealand author tweeted that the tattoo was inappropriate for a diplomat, calling it “the height of ugly, uncivilized wokedom.”
New Zealanders quickly rallied to Ms. Mahuta’s side.
“This isn’t simply a win for ‘diversity,’ although it certainly is; it’s also a triumph of history and politics,” said Morgan Godfery, a political commentator who writes about Maori politics. “Ms. Mahuta is one of the most senior members of the Maori King Movement, the 19th-century resistance movement that fought against the invading New Zealand government, and her appointment to that same government’s foreign ministry is a signal of just how far this country has come.”
And, yet, for any government, appointments alone are only the beginning. As is the case in the United States, Ms. Ardern’s team faces serious domestic and international anxieties. Climate change threatens everyone and everything. The economy is struggling, with Covid-19 exacerbating inequality as housing prices continue to rise beyond the reach of the middle class.
