Maori People

Maori people are the indigenous people of New Zealand called. Sometime around the year 1000 to 1300 the Polynesians came to New Zealand, Polynesia is right by New Zealand so it was not a very long trip for them. The Polynesians are the ancestors of the Maori people. Some of the Maoris called their new land “Aotearoa” and it translates to “land of the long white cloud.” 

The British explorer James Cook was the first white man to set his foot on New Zealand. Many indigenous in New Zealand died because of diseases from the white man just like in Australia. The Maori people had with them from Polynesia a pink sweet potato which got famous for it’s participation in a war, well thousands of Maori people were killed between the years 1818 and the early 1930s in the war which was called the Musket Wars. Also many Maoris who did not get killed became refugees or enslaved. The musket war began because of rivalry on potatoes between maori tribes from northern iwi Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua. 

For two centuries Ta Moko or Maori tattoo as it is often referred to and it was traditional for Maori people to mark permanently their body and face by another Maori. To have a tattoo if you were an Maori it had the expression of commitment and respect. To make the tattoo the Maori people didn’t have needles so they used bones from birds or some other animals to plug the ink inside of the skin. The Maori men usually had tattoo of patterns all over their face but the women usually just had below their mouth some kind of pattern also. It was very artful how their tattoo looked and the maori’s were very handy with carving and weaving. The Maori art was very spiritual, they did carvings in trees and painted just marvellous paintings. Today 15 % or 700.000 people of New Zealand’s community are Maori people, some still live in their traditional tribal areas but more and more are living in urban centers. Over 70.000 Maori people live in Australia and up to 10.000 live in Britain. Many of the Maori people today are unemployed and many have some kind of lousy job while the white man has of course the better payed job. In the movie “Once were warriors” one would say it has a great insight of how the Maori’s have it today. They have their lousy job and drink allot, they are very poor, they can never have everything they want and their lives are just horrible. But more and more of the Maori children are going to school for Maori’s to learn and become something and they are taught on the Maori language. The Maori language is the official language in New Zealand although it is threatened and in 2001 only one of every forth spoke the Maori language.

"The Maori men usually had tattoo of
patterns all over their face"

This is called a hongi and it is a traditional Maori greeting in New
Zealand. It is done by pressing one's nose and forehead
(at the same time) to another person at an encounter