The Maori people
Maori culture is a ‘Taonga’ (treasure) of immeasurable variety and value. This page gives an introduction to a subject which is worthy of further study.
Meet your local Iwi
Settlement Support organises welcomes for new migrants at ‘Marae’ around the country. These visits are highly regarded by the participants. If you would like to take part in one of these occasions, contact your nearest SSNZ.
Te Tangata Whenua - the people of the land
The Maori people of Aotearoa New Zealand are the country’s indigenous people. They first arrived around one thousand years ago as a result of migrations being undertaken by Pacific Island people.
Oral history and settlement patterns show there were several separate voyages by multi-hull canoes, and our main Maori tribes (or ‘Iwi’) trace their ancestry back to these arrivals.
The society that then developed was based on these groups, and did not form a united group. When the first European explorers and then settlers arrived from the 1770’s and onwards, their relationships were with one or more of the established groups.
So when the relationship between Maori and the new non-Maori (whom the Maori called ‘Pakeha’) was formalised with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, it needed a representative from each of these groups, or tribes.
This background is important in understanding both traditional Maori culture and the modern relationships between Maori and Pakeha. It helps explain regional differences in Maori language and custom, and in the views they express.
Tribal affiliation is at the heart of Maori identity. When meeting people for the first time, and in any formal situation, participants introduce themselves with their full ancestry including the names of their Waka (canoe), and the waterway and key geographical feature (usually a mountain) of their historical family location - where their waka first landed.
When Pakeha arrived Maori society was 600 – 800 years old, fully developed and flourishing. While the effects of colonialisation were dramatic and in many respects initially negative, much of traditional Maori culture has been preserved, and is now celebrated as a unique treasure (or Taonga) of New Zealand.
For more information on Maori culture, visit the New Zealand Government’s online history of New Zealand at www.teara.govt.nz
