Aotearoa (New Zealand) was first found and settled by Polynesian explorers, with the legendary navigator Kupe often cited in Māori tradition as the first discoverer, arriving from Hawaiki long before Europeans, with settlers arriving centuries later around 1230-1280 AD, followed by Europeans like Abel Tasman (1642) and James Cook (1769).
Kupe. According to Māori myth, New Zealand (Aotearoa in the Māori language) was discovered by Kupe, a fisherman and Rangatira (chief) from Hawaiki. Kupe's fishing grounds were being troubled by an octopus, who kept eating all the bait off of the fisherman's lines.
In some traditional stories, Aotearoa was the name of the canoe (waka) of the explorer Kupe, and he named the land after it. Kupe's wife Kūrāmarotini (in some versions, his daughter) was watching the horizon and called "He ao! He ao!" ('a cloud! a cloud!')
The first Europeans known to have reached New Zealand were the crew of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who arrived in his ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen.
Discovery. In 1642 the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman made the first known European discovery of New Zealand. He charted the country's west coast from north of Greymouth up to Cape Maria van Diemen.
Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, they settled here over 700 years ago. They came from Polynesia by waka (canoe). New Zealand has a shorter human history than any other country.
The Māori are descended from East Polynesian settlers who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350.
The histories of the Māori people and Native Hawaiians are undeniably similar. We are Polynesian cousins, bound by common blood lines, however far removed. Our languages, stories and culture are similar in ways, yet uniquely different in others.
Māori were the first to arrive in New Zealand, journeying in canoes from Hawaiki about 1,000 years ago.
Until 1974, and the passing of the Māori Affairs Amendment Act, a Māori was defined as someone with “half or more blood”. However, the definition was rather loosely applied, and did not require persons to provide proof of their “blood quantum” in order to receive whatever benefits were then available.
The Oxford Dictionary of English (2011) defines 'Pakeha' as 'a white New Zealander'.
The next year, in 1643, Hendrik Brouwer proved that the South American land was just a small island, and Dutch cartographers subsequently renamed Tasman's discovery Nova Zeelandia from Latin, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. This name was later anglicised to New Zealand.
The average person would use New Zealand. Unless of course they were speaking Maori, then Aotearoa would always be used. I know Aotearoa used to be only the name for the North Island but is now used as a Maori term for New Zealand entirely.
Kupe drew attention to it and said “Surely is a point of land”. His wife, Hine-te-aparangi, called out “He ao! He ao!” (a cloud! a cloud!) Later Kupe decided to call the land after his wife's greeting to it, and the cloud which welcomed them.
Filipinos share DNA with Polynesians, Hawaiians, and the Māori of New Zealand — all part of the vast Austronesian family.
Before 1840, the British government had no legal power to protect its citizens while they were in New Zealand – nor could it make unscrupulous ones obey British laws. This was a problem. Māori, British traders, and missionaries all expressed their dissatisfaction.
Aboriginals of Australia. The Australian Aborigines and the New Zealand Máori are not related in modern origin. The Aborigines originated in Africa and migrated to Australia about 40,000 years ago. The Máori migrated to the New Zealand islands from Polynesia about 5,000 years ago.
By 1870 the non-Māori population reached over 250,000. Other smaller groups of settlers came from Germany, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe as well as from China and India, but British and Irish settlers made up the vast majority, and did so for the next 150 years.
Māori and other Polynesian people tend to have larger body frames due to a combination of genetics, evolutionary advantages for ancestral ocean voyages (like efficient energy storage and dense bones), and lifestyle changes from traditional diets and manual labor to modern sedentary habits and imported, processed foods, leading to higher rates of obesity in contemporary times. Cultural acceptance of larger body sizes also plays a role in maintaining these trends, though studies show Māori aren't necessarily bigger in stature but more prone to obesity due to socio-economic factors.
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.
Aloha has numerous cognates in other Polynesian languages, such as talofa in Samoan, ta'alofa in Tuvaluan, and aro'a in Cook Islands Māori. The Māori word aroha, with Aroha being a given name is also descended from the Proto-Polynesian root.
Māori are the Indigenous Peoples of Aotearoa (New Zealand).
The New Zealand land confiscations took place during the 1860s to punish the Kīngitanga movement for attempting to set up an alternative Māori form of government that forbade the selling of land to European settlers.
Some of us are dark skinned, with dark hair, while some are blonde with blue eyes. Being Māori is not a dichotomy – we cannot categorise Maori into 'black' or 'white' because Kiwi identities are complex, and being Māori is about more than a skin colour.
The propensity of Māori towards violence and aggression has been assigned to the expression of a unique monoamine oxidase gene (MAO) popularly known as the 'Warrior Gene'. This assignment suggests that the violence supposedly exhibited by Māori is due to the very nature of Māori himself.