a maori primer

In recent decades, Maoris have come a long way toward reclaiming the land and status that was theirs when they first settled New Zealand, several centuries before the influx of Europeans. Today, the Maori people comprise some 15 percent of the population, and the nation is in many respects bi-cultural.

Around 950 CE, Polynesians —ancestors of Maori people —set sail from Hawaiki and discovered what explorer Kupe dubbed Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud). Maori tribes began arriving by canoe and settling in the area around 200 years later.

Europeans first surfaced in 1642, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sailed along the west coast. But it wasn't for another century, when Captain James Cook showed up in 1769, that life in Aotearoa began to change significantly.

Cultural differences and misunderstandings strained initial interactions, but trade between the Maori and Pakehas (white folk) flourished.

Then in 1835, in a move to fend off the French, Maori chiefs and representatives of the British crown signed a declaration of independence that gave the Maoris sovereign rights over their lands but asked the King of England to become the parent and protector of the new state.

Just five years later, the Crown changed the terms of the agreement with the infamous Treaty of Waitangi. Although the treaty recognized Maori occupation and tribal authority, it allowed droves of European immigrants to acquire land for settlement and set up a new government of rule. The British immediately violated the contract by imposing laws and taxes and taking ancestral lands from the Maori. Chief Hone Heke of Nga Puhi protested these breaches by cutting down the British flagpole at Kororareka... repeatedly.

By the mid nineteenth century, the Maori population had dwindled from disease and war with the British and amongst themselves.

Maoris made substantial contributions in WWI and WWII, garnering respect on the battlefield and at home. After WWII , the migration of many Maori to urban centers eroded their hierarchies and cultures and Maoris began to fear the loss of language and traditions. These concerns spurred a fierce fight for their rights and land with impressive results. In 1975, the Waitangi Tribunal was set up to address treaty violations and in 1985, the scope of the Tribunal was extended to include grievances dating as far back as 1840. In 1987 Maori became an official language of New Zealand, and the language and traditions are increasingly becoming a part of public ceremonies throughout the country.

Maori: the primer
As New Zealand becomes more a bi-cultural nation, Maori words are ever more increasingly a part of everyday conversation. We've given a few introductory word and phrases to get you started:

Aotearoa — Land of the Long, White Cloud (New Zealand)

aroha — love, charity, compassion, affection

haka — war-like chant accompanied by intimidating facial expressions and body motions

hapu — subtribes; people; pregnant

hongi — smell; press foreheads and noses in greeting

iwi — tribe, nation, people, ethnicity

kia ora — cheers, hello; literally "good health"

mana — power; prestige; spiritual essence — all things have mana

marae — ground, meeting place for each tribe

moana — ocean, sea

moko — traditional Maori art of tattooing; lizard — a popular art motif as a form of protection; monster (Ta Moko: Process of creating a moko — highly spiritual in nature)

noa — counterpart to tapu — blessing; a removal of tapu eg. new house blessing

pakeha — white Europeans; colonists; foreigners

tapu — like taboo — off limits due to its sacred nature, the overlap between the human and the spiritual world; may not be touched by humans; observances concerning sickness, death and burial

wahine — woman, wife, bride (mana wahine: woman of power)

wairua — soul — all living things are descended from gods, all things have soul

waiata — genealogy song, structured in call and response form; oral history

waka — canoe, car, vehicle — mode of transportation; also refers to genealogy, coming from what Waka?

whakapapa — genealogy, whole family tree as passed down through oral history

whenua — country; ground; land; afterbirth — a Maori child's afterbirth is buried to connect them to the land; people of the land

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Maori Primer

A PM Moment

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