Māori people

Māori

Te Puni, nineteenth-century Māori chief
Total population
approx. 660,000
Regions with significant populations
New Zealand	565,329 (ethnicity) 643,977 (descent)
Australia	72,956 (descent)
United Kingdom	approx. 8,000
United States	approx. 3,500
Canada	1,305
Other regions	approx. 8,000
Languages
Māori, English
Religion
Māori religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
other Polynesian peoples, Austronesian peoples

The word Māori refers to the indigenous Polynesian peoples of New Zealand, and to their language.

Naming and self-naming

In the Māori language the word māori means "normal," "natural" or "ordinary." In legends and other oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings from deities and spirits (wairua).

Māori has cognates in other Polynesian languages such as the Hawaiian 'Maoli,' the Tahitian 'Maohi,' and the Cook Islands Māori which all share similar meanings. The word as adopted in contemporary English means "native", "indigenous" or "aboriginal". The orthographic conventions developed by the Māori Language Commission reflect the growing preference for a macron (a line over the 'a') to denote the long 'a' sound. Contemporary English-language usage tends to avoid pluralising the word 'Māori' with an 's': the standard Māori language has no 's' sound, and generally expresses plurals using preceding articles.

Early European visitors to the islands of New Zealand referred to the people they found there variously as "Indians," "aborigines," "natives" or "New Zealanders." Māori remained the term used by Māori to describe themselves in a pan-tribal sense. In 1947, the New Zealand government renamed the "Department of Native Affairs" as the "Department of Māori Affairs" to recognise this.

Māori people often use the term Tangata whenua (literally, "people of the land") to describe themselves in a way that emphasises their relationship with a particular area of land — a tribe may be tangata whenua in one area, but not another. The term can also refer to Māori as a whole in relation to New Zealand (Aotearoa) as a whole.

Prior to 1974 ancestry determined the legal definition of "a Māori person". For example, bloodlines determined whether a person should enrol on the Māori or general (European) electoral roll; in 1947 the authorities determined that one man, 5/8ths Māori, had improperly voted in the European seat of Raglan. The Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1974 changed the definition to one of cultural self-identification, which technically means that a person with no Māori ancestry can enroll and vote in a Māori electorate. Cultural self-identification is now the usual way of defining who is and is not Māori. Where money (for example scholarships or Waitangi Tribunal settlements) becomes involved, the relevant authorities generally require some demonstration of ancestry and/or cultural connection, but no minimum "blood" requirement exists. This sometimes causes controversy. For example in 2003, Christian Cullen became a member of the Māori rugby team despite having, according to his father, about 1/64 Māori ancestry. A former Parliamentary leader of the National Party, Don Brash, also caused controversy by alleging that since most if not all Māori have some non-Māori ancestry, Māori do not comprise a distinct ethnic group. Many Māori angrily denied this claim, arguing that Māori identity has more to do with culture than with genetic lineage.

Origins

Homo sapiens settlers reached New Zealand only after populating almost all the other habitable areas on Earth.

Archaeological and linguistic evidence (Sutton 1994) suggests that probably several waves of migration came from Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand between AD 800 and 1300. The origins of Māori as a separate people relate to those of their Polynesian ancestors (see Polynesian culture). Māori oral history describes the arrival of the ancestors from Hawaiki (a mythical homeland in tropical Polynesia) by large ocean-going canoes (waka: see Māori migration canoes). Migration accounts vary among Māori tribes (iwi), whose members can identify with different waka in their genealogies or whakapapa.

No credible evidence exists of human settlement in New Zealand prior to the Polynesian voyagers; on the other hand, compelling evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology indicates that the first settlers came from East Polynesia and became the Māori.

File:Murderers' Bay (cropped).jpg

First European impression of Māori, at "Murderers' Bay"

Development of Māori culture

Main article: Māori culture

When Polynesians first arrived in New Zealand, they found a land teeming with birdlife, including the giant moa. The richness of this food resource led to this period being known to archeologists as the 'moa hunter period'. However, over-hunting led to the extinction of the moa and several other species, including a giant eagle which preyed upon the moa.

As a result of the moa's extinction, the culture changed and became what is often known as 'classical Māori' culture. Horticulture became much more important, and it is likely that inter-tribal warfare also increased as iwi competed for scarce resources. This is shown in the increased frequency of fortified pā, although there is debate about the amount of conflict. Various systems arose which aimed to conserve resources; most of these, such as tapu and rahui, used religious or supernatural threat to discourage people from taking species at particular times or from particular areas. During this time performing arts such as the haka developed from their Polynesian roots, as did visual arts, particularly carving and weaving. The language underwent some changes, and dialects emerged, with the dialect of the Otago region being particularly distinctive. However, these all remained similar to other Polynesian tongues, to the point where a Tahitian man on one of Cook's voyages could communicate with Māori that the party encountered.

At some point, probably in the early stages of the 'classical' period, one group migrated east to Rekohu (the Chatham Islands), where, through a process of adaptation to local conditions, they developed a culture known as Moriori—distinct from Māori culture in many ways, but still related to it. Its most notable feature was its emphasis on pacifism.

Interactions with Europeans before 1840

European settlement of New Zealand occurred relatively recently in history. New Zealand historian Michael King in The Penguin History Of New Zealand describes the Māori as "the last major human community on earth untouched and unaffected by the wider world."

The early European explorers, including Abel Tasman (who arrived in 1642) and Captain James Cook (who first visited in 1769), reported encounters with Māori. These early reports described the Māori as a fierce and proud warrior race. Inter-tribal warfare occurred frequently in this period, with the victors enslaving or in some cases eating the vanquished.

From as early as the 1780s, Māori encountered European sealers and whalers; some even crewed on the foreign ships. A continuous trickle of escaped convicts from Australia and deserters from visiting ships also exposed the indigenous New Zealand population to outside influences.

By 1830, estimates placed the number of Pākehā (Europeans) living among the Māori as high as 2,000. The newcomers' status varied from slaves through to high-ranking advisors, from prisoners to those who abandoned European culture and identified themselves as Māori. Many Māori valued Pākehā for their ability to describe European skills and culture and their ability to obtain European items in trade, particularly weaponry. These Europeans "gone native" became known as Pākehā Māori. When Pomare led a war party against Titore in 1838, he had 132 Pākehā mercenaries among his warriors. 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 the period from about 1805 to 1840 the acquisition of muskets by those tribes in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori tribes, and there ensued a period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, which resulted in the effective extermination of several tribes and the driving of others 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. Victims included the Moriori, who not only lacked muskets but also had a pacifist culture which prevented them from defending themselves.

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

1840 to 1890: The marginalisation of Māori

Ultimately this led to Britain dispatching William Hobson 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 1840, Hobson negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with the northern chiefs. Other Māori chiefs subsequently signed this treaty. In the end, only 500 chiefs out of 1500 sub-tribes across all of New Zealand signed the Treaty, and some of the biggest tribes (Chief Te Wherowhero in Waikato, Te Kani A Takirau in Gisborne) refused to sign. It made the Māori British subjects in return for a guarantee of property-rights and tribal autonomy.

There is still a dispute on whether the Treaty of Waitangi ceded Maori sovereignty or not. Indeed, Maori chiefs signed a Maori version of the Treaty, which was not a very accurate translation of the English version. It is unlikely that the Maori version of the treaty ceded sovereignty and the Crown and the missionaries probably did not fully explain the import of the English version.

Māori formed substantial businesses, supplying food and other products for domestic and overseas markets.

Among the first Europeans both to learn the Māori language and to record Māori mythology, George Grey, Governor of New Zealand from 1845 to 1855 and from 1861 to 1868, stands out.

In the 1860s, disputes over questionable land purchases and the attempts of Māori in the Waikato to establish what some perceived as a rival British-style system of royalty led to the New Zealand land wars. Although these resulted in relatively few deaths, the colonial government confiscated large tracts of tribal land as punishment for what they termed as rebellion (although the Crown had initiated the military action against its own citizens), in some cases without reference to whether the tribe involved actually participated in the warfare. 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 Crown troops dispersed its participants in 1881.

The Native Land Acts of 1862 and 1865 created the Native Land Court, which purpose was to break down communal ownership to make the structure of land ownership match English standards. The Native Land Court did not work fairly and its action resulted in the alienation of Māori land. Overall, between 1840 and 1890, Maori lost 95% of their land (63,000,000a of 66,000,000 -55,000,000a in 1890).

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

In 1840, Māori population was about 100,000 and European were only 2,000. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Māori population had declined to 36,000 and European had risen to more than 600,000.

Late twentieth-century house post depicting the navigator Kupe fighting two sea creatures.

Revival

The decline of the Māori population did not continue; instead levels recovered. Despite a substantial level of intermarriage between the Māori and European populations, many Māori retained their cultural identity. A number of discourses developed as to the meaning of "Maori" and who or who is not Maori. (The Maori population is not monolithic, and no one political or tribal authority can speak on behalf of all Maori.)

From the late nineteenth century, a number of successful Māori politicians emerged. These men, such as James Carroll, Apirana Ngata, Te Rangi Hiroa and Maui Pomare showed skill in the arts of Pākehā politics; at one point Carroll became Acting Prime Minister. The group, known as the Young Māori Party aimed to revitalise their people after the devastation of the previous century. For them this involved Māori adopting European ways of life such as Western medicine and education. However Ngata in particular also wished to preserve traditional Māori culture, especially the arts. Ngata acted as a major force behind the revival of arts such as kapa haka and carving. He also enacted a programme of land development which helped many iwi retain and develop their land.

The New Zealand government decided to exempt Māori from the conscription that applied to other citizens in World War II, but nonetheless Māori volunteered in large numbers, forming the 28th or Māori Battalion, which performed creditably, notably in Crete, North Africa, and Italy. Altogether 17,000 Māori took part in the war.

Since the 1960s, Māoridom has undergone a cultural revival strongly connected with a protest movement. Government recognition of the growing political power of Māori combined with political activism have led to a limited redress for unjust confiscation of land and for the violation of other property rights. The State set up the Waitangi Tribunal, a body with the powers of a Commission of Enquiry, to investigate and make recommendations on such issues. Significantly, because of the manner in which the Government empowered it, the Tribunal cannot make binding rulings. However, as a result of the redress paid to many iwi (tribes), Māori now have significant interests in the fishing and forestry industries. Tensions remain however, with complaints from Māori that the settlements occur at a level of between 1 and 2.5 cents on the dollar of the value of the confiscated lands. The Government need not accept the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal, and has rejected some of them, with a most recent and widely-debated example in the New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy.

The urbanisation of Māori proceeded apace in the second half of the 20th century. A majority of Māori people now live in cities and towns, and many have become estranged from tribal roots and customs.

Māori man holding a bird-spear. War canoe in background (photo taken at Dominion Museum in Wellington, New Zealand, July, 1980)

Māori meeting house, Dominion Museum, Wellington (photo taken in July, 1980)

Once Were Warriors, a 1994 film adapted from a 1990 novel of the same name by Alan Duff, brought the plight of some urban Māori to a wide audience. It became the highest grossing film in New Zealand that year and received international acclaim, winning several international film-prizes. While some Māori feared that viewers would consider the violent male characters an accurate portrayal of Māori men, most film-critics praised it as exposing, on an international stage, the raw side of domestic violence. Some Maori opinion, particularly feminist, welcomed the debate on domestic violence that the film enabled.

In many areas of New Zealand, the Māori language lost its role as a living community language (used by significant numbers of people) in the post-war years. In tandem with calls for sovereignty and the righting of social injustices from the 1970s onwards, many New Zealand schools now teach Māori culture and language, and pre-school kohanga reo (literally: "language nests") have started which teach tamariki (young children) exclusively in Māori. These now extend right through secondary schools (kura tuarua). In 2004 Māori Television, a government-funded TV station committed to broadcasting primarily in te reo, began broadcasting. Māori language, enjoys the equivalent status de jure as English in government and law, although the language continues to be marginalised in mainstream use. At the time of the 2006 Census, Maori figured as the second most widely-spoken language in New Zealand after English, with 4% of New Zealanders able to speak Maori to at least a conversational level.

As of 2006, Māori politicians have seven designated Māori seats in the Parliament of New Zealand (and they may and do stand in and win the General seats), and consideration and consultation with Māori have become routine requirements for many New Zealand councils and government organisations. Debate occurs frequently as to the relevancy and legitimacy of the Maori electoral roll, although currently neither of the two major political parties intend to abolish it.

Despite significant social and economic advances during the twentieth century, Māori tend to cluster in the lower percentiles in most health and education statistics and in labour-force participation, as well as featuring disproportionately highly in criminal and imprisonment statistics. As with many indigenous cultures from around the world, Māori suffer both institutional and direct racism. For example, in December 2006, vandals sprayed racist graffiti on ancient Māori rock-art at the Raincliff Historic Reserve in South Canterbury.

Intellectual property

In 2001 a dispute concerning the popular LEGO toy line "Bionicle" arose between Danish toymaker Lego Group and several Māori tribal groups (fronted by lawyer Maui Solomon) along with several members of an on-line discussion-forum (Aotearoa Cafe). The Bionicle product-line allegedly used many words appropriated from Māori language, imagery and folklore. The dispute ended in an amicable settlement. Initially the Lego Group refused to withdraw the product, saying it had drawn the names from many cultures, but later agreed that it had taken the names from Māori and agreed to change certain names or spellings to help set the toy-line apart from the Māori legends. This, however, did not prevent the many Bionicle users from continuing to use the disputed words, resulting in the popular Bionicle website BZPower coming under a denial-of-service attack for four days from an attacker using the name Kotiate.

Commerce

The New Zealand Law Commission has started its own project to develop a legal framework for Māori who want to manage communal resources and responsibilities. The voluntary system proposes an alternative to existing companies, incorporations, and trusts in which tribes and hapu and other groupings can interact with the legal system. The foreshadowed legislation, under the proposed name of the "Waka Umanga (Māori Corporations) Act", would provide a model adaptable to suit the needs of individual iwi. It seems likely that the current Government coalition will not support the Bill in its un-amended form and if the final Act should pass into law, it will presumably depart significantly less radically from the current legal personalities afforded by British/New Zealand law.

Modern socio-economic issues

Māori are poorer on average than the rest of the population, and are at greater risk of many negative economic and social outcomes. Over 50% of Māori live in areas classed in the three highest deprivation deciles, compared with 24% of the rest of the population. Although Māori make up only 14% of the population, they make up almost 50% of the total prison population. Māori have higher unemployment rates than other cultures resident in New Zealand. Māori have higher numbers of suicides than non-Māori. Just over 50% of Māori pass NCEA Level One, New Zealand's main secondary school qualification usually attained after 11 years of schooling. Maoris also suffer more health problems, including alcohol and drug-related problems, per head of population than any other culture living in New Zealand.

See also

• Bionicle Māori controversy
• Haka
• Hei-tiki
• Kapa haka
• Kīngitanga  (Māori King Movement)
• Māori culture
• Māori language
• Māori music
• Māori migration canoes
• Māori religion
• Moriori
• New Zealand land wars
• New Zealand Māori rugby league team
• New Zealand Māori rugby union team
• Tā moko  (Māori body and face marking)
• Māori cuisine

References

• Biggs, Bruce (1994). "Does Māori have a closest relative?" In Sutton (Ed.)(1994), pp. 96 - 105.
• Hiroa, Te Rangi (Sir Peter Buck) (1974). The Coming of the Māori. 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 Māori Tattoo. Revised edition. First published 1986. Auckland: Reed.
• Sutton, Douglas G. (Ed.) (1994). The Origins of the First New Zealanders. Auckland: Auckland University Press.
• Wānanga Ahu-Rewa Ngatira marae (1940)

External links

• Aotearoa Cafe, a discussion-forum about Māori history, politics and art.
• Aotearoa Māori Internet Organisation, an online discussion board.
• culture.co.nz, directory of important Māori websites.
• maori.info; provides summaries of major aspects of Māori culture.
• korero.maori.nz, an interactive Māori language resource site.
• maori.org.nz, a large Māori website covering a wide range of topics.
• Māori-related news headlines, from the Te Karere Ipurangi news portal.
• Māori theology, by the late Michael Shirres.
• Ta Moko, a website about moko (Māori body art).
• Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand; includes information on Māori New Zealanders.