Who the Māori are: their Polynesian origins, te reo Māori, the Treaty of Waitangi, colonisation, and the cultural revival happening today.
Faglig kvalitetssikret av lærere og toppstudenter · Følger læreplanen (LK20) · Sist oppdatert 2026-09-09
The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, which they call Aotearoa («the land of the long white cloud»). They are a Polynesian people whose ancestors navigated thousands of kilometres across the Pacific in ocean-going canoes, arriving around the 13th century. Today the Māori make up roughly one in six New Zealanders and are central to the country national identity.
Māori society was organised into iwi (tribes) and hapū (sub-tribes). European contact grew from the late 1700s, bringing trade but also disease and conflict. In 1840, many Māori chiefs and the British Crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi), New Zealand founding document. The English and Māori versions differed in meaning, and disputes over land and sovereignty led to wars and large-scale land confiscation in the 19th century.
Te reo Māori is the Māori language, now an official language of New Zealand. Important cultural concepts include whānau (extended family), marae (communal meeting grounds), mana (prestige and authority) and tangata whenua («people of the land»). The haka, a powerful ceremonial dance, is known worldwide, partly through the national rugby team.
Colonisation caused major loss of land, population and language. For much of the 20th century, Māori children were discouraged or punished for speaking te reo, and the language nearly disappeared.
Since the 1970s there has been a strong cultural renaissance. Language-nest preschools (kōhanga reo) and Māori-language schools (kura kaupapa) helped revive te reo. The Waitangi Tribunal investigates historic breaches of the Treaty, and reserved Māori seats exist in Parliament. Challenges around health, income and justice remain, but Māori culture is increasingly visible and valued in modern New Zealand.