The Māori name for the little spotted kiwi is kiwi pukupuku, which refers to its round-bellied appearance. The Māori name for the great spotted kiwi is roroa or roa.
Kiwi pukupuku/little spotted kiwi.
Māori always regarded the kiwi as a special bird. They knew it as 'te manu huna a Tāne', the hidden bird of Tāne, god of the forest. Kiwi feather cloaks (kahu kiwi), originally made by sewing kiwi skins together, were taonga (treasures) usually reserved for chiefs.
Great spotted kiwi
In 2002 it was estimated that 17,000 remained. As its name suggests, the great spotted (roroa or roa in Māori) is the largest kiwi (45 centimetres high). Its grey feathers are mottled with white bands.
Rowi are the rarest of the five species of kiwi. Through predation and habitat loss, these remarkable birds have been reduced to just one natural population.
Kiwi is not generally considered to be a derogatory term, but there are New Zealanders, particularly some with Māori heritage, who find the appellation jarring and prefer not to identify with it.
This has led it to be classified as vulnerable. There are fewer than 16,000 great spotted kiwis in total, almost all in the more mountainous parts of northwest Nelson, the northwest coast, and the Southern Alps. A minority live on island reserves.
The Oxford Dictionary of English (2011) defines 'Pakeha' as 'a white New Zealander'.
Puku - This Maori-derived term refers to the stomach or belly. For example, "My puku is full after that meal."
For millennia, Māori have been the tangata whenua, the indigenous people of Aotearoa. Arriving here from the Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki over 1,000 years ago, the great explorer Kupe, was the first Māori to reach these lands.
Noa is the opposite of Tapu and refers to ordinary, everyday things such as food or alcohol. Those two should be kept separated. That's why you should avoid sitting on pillows and touching or passing food over a person's head, since it's considered very sacred by Māori people.
Absolutely fine. Equally, it should be OK for a Māori to have a Pakeha name.
For nearly 50 years, kiwi pukupuku / little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii) were thought to be extinct in the wild. In June 2025, DNA testing confirmed a kiwi found on the West Coast of the South Island was a kiwi pukupuku. Nine kiwi pukupuku have now been confirmed and at least two pairs are breeding.
ngutu roa. 1. (noun) kiwi.
Aroha is a Māori word meaning "love", cognate with the Hawaiian term aloha. It is also a given name, and can be either masculine or feminine.
kōtuku. 1. (noun) white heron, Egretta alba, great egret, Ardea alba modesta - a rare white bird that has an obvious kink in its long neck and returns each year to Okarito on the West Coast to nest. All white plumage, bill yellow, legs and feet black.
Chur. The meaning of chur is essentially thank you. You can use this classic Kiwi slang to show gratitude or appreciation. As explained above, it can also mean "sweet as" or "that's awesome".
uma. 1. (noun) bosom, chest, breast.
No, Māori and Samoan are not the same; they are distinct Polynesian peoples with shared ancestry but separate cultures, languages, and histories, though they are related and both come from the larger Polynesian family. While they have common Polynesian roots, Samoans are from Samoa and American Samoa, speaking Samoan, while the Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand (Aotearoa), speaking Te Reo Māori, and their traditions, like the Haka (Māori) versus Siva Tau (Samoan), differ.
Although Māori are well regarded in popular culture as having been treated better than other indigenous people, anti-Māori sentiment has been a constant fixture of New Zealand society since colonisation.
Until 1986, the census required at least 50 per cent Māori ancestry to claim Māori affiliation. Currently, in most contexts, authorities require some documentation of ancestry or continuing cultural connection (such as acceptance by others as being of the people); however, there is no minimum ancestry requirement.
Ahh, not quite... Weka are often mistaken for kiwi by visitors, and fair enough... they've got that same brown, flightless look going on. But these guys are bold, curious, and never shy about checking out boots, bags or snacks if given the chance. In the wild, some weka can be pretty confident around people.
Introduction. The tara iti/New Zealand fairy tern – our most endangered bird with fewer than 40 remaining – has celebrated a record-breaking summer breeding season, thanks to favourable weather conditions and advancements in management practices.
Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty calls itself the kiwifruit capital of the world – and has the sign to prove it. Most of New Zealand's kiwifruit is produced in and around the area.