Maori Settlement

It is said that The first Polynesians settled mainly around the coast of New Zealand, and especially the east coast, which was more hospitable and temperate in climate. They are believed to have arrived in New Zealand some time between 1250 and 1300. They arrived in waves of giant canoes. Settlers introduced animals such as the dog and the small Polynesian rat.

The Arryn Theory

In the 1850s scholars discovered that most European languages had developed from Sanskrit, the ancient language of India. It is still believed that Europeans and Indians share ancestors, known as Aryan or Caucasian. Ethnologists such as Edward Tregear claimed that Māori, too, had come from India. He found similarities between Māori and Sanskrit words and symbols.

The Great Fleet Theory

IIn the 19th century many scholars recorded different Māori stories about reaching New Zealand from Polynesia. But one man, Percy Smith, calculated from listening to Māori histories that they had migrated together in 1350 AD, in one ‘great fleet’ of seven canoes. According to Smith, they had then conquered the Moriori, who he said were a primitive Melanesian race already living in New Zealand. Smith’s story was accepted for over 60 years. It was popular because many believed that European settlers were the next ‘superior’ people, who would take over from Māori.

Latest theory

From the 1920s scientists proved that Chatham Island Moriori, like Māori, were descendants of the original Polynesian settlers of New Zealand. Moriori had migrated to the Chatham Islands some time after 1300 AD, possibly around 1500. In the 1960s errors were found in Percy Smith’s research for the Great Fleet story. Recent scientific evidence includes DNA analysis, and radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites. It is now believed that Māori arrived at different times, from several points in East Polynesia, in the late 13th century.

Early Maori began to form tribal groups which brought on a warrior hunting culture. At this time, New Zealand was home to many flightless birds, including the Moa. This bird was, as a consequent, hunted extensively for its meat, large eggs, and feathers. The Moa bones, being strong, were used to fabricate artefacts and weapons.

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European arrival

European settlement of New Zealand occurred in relatively recent historical times. 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." Early European explorers, including Abel Tasman (who arrived in 1642) and Captain James Cook (who first visited in 1769), recorded their impressions of Māori. Initial contact between Māori and Europeans proved problematic, sometimes fatal, with several accounts of Europeans being cannibalised

By 1830, estimates placed the number of Europeans living among the Māori as high as 2,000. The runaways had varying status-levels within Māori society, ranging from slaves to high-ranking advisors. Some runaways remained little more than prisoners, while others abandoned European culture and identified as Māori. These Europeans "gone native" became known as Pākehā Māori.

The arrival of Europeans to New Zealand starting from the 17th century brought enormous changes to the Māori way of life. Māori people gradually adopted many aspects of Western society and culture. Initial relations between Māori and Europeans were largely amicable, and with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the two cultures coexisted as part of a new British colony. Rising tensions over disputed land sales led to conflict in the 1860s. Social upheaval, decades of conflict and epidemics of introduced disease took a devastating toll on the Māori population, which fell dramatically. By the start of the 20th century, the Māori population had begun to recover, and efforts have been made to increase their standing in wider New Zealand society and achieve social justice. Traditional Māori culture has enjoyed a revival, and a protest movement emerged in the 1960s advocating for Māori issues.

Conflict and Growth

More European settlers arrived and Māori provided their food and supported the growth of towns. But diseases began to kill the Māori population, and by 1858 Europeans outnumbered Māori.Tribes became unwilling to part with any more land and in 1860 war broke out between British and settler troops and Māori. After the land wars several million hectares of land were confiscated in Waikato, Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty.

For over a century after the European arrival Maori remained a rural people. Some lived in towns or small urban areas, but typically they were a part of their iwi’s region and their marae – with its central role in communal life – and the whanau was not far away. Numbers in these urban areas – with the exception of Auckland – were up to the size of a large hapu – 434 in total in Wellington on the 1926 Census night.

Māori fought with New Zealand troops in the Boer War and the First World War. The Māori battalion gained high regard in the Second World War.