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Māori people

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Māori

Te Puni, 19th-century Māori chief
Regions with significant populations
New Zealand
  586,000 (2001)
  635,100 (2005)

Australia
   72,956 (2001)
England
  ~8,000 (in early 2000s)
United States
  ~3,500 (2000)
Canada
   1,305 (2001)

Elsewhere
  ~8,000 (in early 2000s)
Languages
English, Māori
Related ethnic groups
other Polynesian peoples
For the Māori language, see Māori language.

Māori is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and their language. The word māori means "normal" or "ordinary" in the Māori language. In legends and other oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings from deities and spirits. "Māori" has cognates in some other Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian in which the word maoli means native, indigenous, real, or actual. It is also the name of the people and language of the Cook Islands, referred to as Cook Islands Māori.

Māori origins

New Zealand was one of the last areas of the planet to be settled.

Archaeological and linguistic evidence (see Sutton 1994) suggests there were probably several waves of migration from Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand between 800 and 1300 AD. Māori origins therefore cannot be separated from those of their Polynesian ancestors (for more information see Polynesian culture). Māori oral history describes their arrival from Hawaiki (a mythical homeland in tropical Polynesia) by large ocean–going canoes (waka) - see Māori migration canoes. Migration accounts vary among Māori tribes or iwi, whose members can identify with different waka in their genealogies or whakapapa.

There is no credible evidence of human settlement in New Zealand prior to the Māori voyagers; on the other hand, compelling evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology indicates that the first settlers were East Polynesians who became the Māori.

Interactions with Europeans before formal treaty

European settlement of New Zealand occurred relatively recently, causing the late New Zealand historian Michael King to state in his book, The Penguin History Of New Zealand, that Māori were "the last major human community on earth untouched and unaffected by the wider world."

The early European explorers, including Abel Tasman and James Cook, reported encounters with Māori. These early reports described the Māori as a fierce and proud warrior race. Inter-tribal warfare was a way of life, with the conquered being enslaved or in some cases eaten.

From as early as the 1780s Māori had encounters with European sealers and whalers; some even crewed on their ships. There was also a continuous trickle of escaped convicts from Australia and deserters from visiting ships.

By 1830 it was estimated that there were as many as 2,000 Pākehā living among the Māori, status varying from slaves through to high ranking advisors, from prisoners to those who abandoned European culture and identified themselves as Māori. Pākehā were valued for their ability to describe European skills and culture and their ability to obtain European items in trade, particularly weaponry. These Europeans were known as Pākehā Māori. When Pomare led a war party against Titore in 1838, among his warriors were 132 Pākehā mercenaries. Frederick Edward Maning, an early settler, wrote two colourful contemporaneous accounts of life at that time and a little later, which have become classics of New Zealand literature: Old New Zealand and History of the War in the North of New Zealand against the Chief Heke.

During this period the acquisition of muskets by those tribes in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori tribes, and there was a period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, during which several tribes were effectively exterminated and others were driven from their traditional territory. European diseases also killed a large but unknown number of Māori during this period. Estimates vary between ten and fifty percent.

With increasing European missionary activity and settlement in the 1830s as well as perceived European lawlessness, the British Crown, as a predominant world power, came under pressure to intervene.

1840-1890

Ultimately this led to William Hobson being dispatched with instructions to take possession of New Zealand. Before he arrived, Queen Victoria annexed New Zealand by royal proclamation in January 1840. On arrival in February, Hobson negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with the surrounding northern chiefs. This treaty was subsequently signed by many other Māori chiefs, though by no means all. The treaty made the Māori British subjects in return for a guarantee of property rights and tribal autonomy.

The partnership was entered into with enthusiasm on both sides, despite regrettable exceptional incidents. Māori formed substantial businesses, supplying food and other products for domestic and overseas markets.

Governor George Grey learned the language and recorded much of the mythology. He was among the first of many to do so.

In the 1860s, disputes over questionable land purchases and the attempts of Māori in the Waikato to establish what was perceived as a rival British-style system of royalty led to the New Zealand land wars. Although these resulted in relatively few deaths, large tracts of tribal land were confiscated by the colonial government as punishment for rebellion, in some cases without reference to whether the tribe whose land was confiscated actually participated in rebellion. Some tribes actively fought against the Crown, while others (known as kupapa) fought in support of the Crown. A passive resistance movement developed at the settlement of Parihaka in Taranaki, but was dispersed by the invasion of Crown troops in 1881.

With the loss of much of their land, Māori went into a period of decline, and by the late 19th century it was believed that the Māori population would cease to exist as a separate race and be assimilated into the European population.

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See also

References

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (2004). Australians' Ancestries: 2001. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Catalogue Number 2054.0. [1]
  • Biggs, Bruce (1994). Does Maori have a closest relative? In Sutton (Ed.)(1994), pp. 96–-105.
  • Hiroa, Te Rangi (Sir Peter Buck) (1974). The Coming of the Maori. Second Edition. First Published 1949. Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs.
  • Irwin, Geoffrey (1992). The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Simmons, D.R. (1997). Ta Moko, The Art of Maori Tattoo. Revised Edition. First published 1986. Auckland: Reed.
  • Statistics Canada (2003). Ethnic Origin (232), Sex (3) and Single and Multiple Responses (3) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data.. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, Cat. No. 97F0010XCB2001001. [2]
  • Statistics New Zealand (2005). Estimated resident population of Māori ethnic group, at 30 June 1991-2005, selected age groups by sex. Wellington: Statistics New Zealand. [3]
  • Sutton, Douglas G. (Ed.) (1994). The Origins of the First New Zealanders. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
  • United States Census Bureau (2003). Census 2000 Foreign-Born Profiles (STP-159): Country of Birth: New Zealand. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau. [4]
  • Walrond, Carl (2005). Māori overseas, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. [5]
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