When James Cook arrived in 1769, Nieuw Zeeland was anglicised to New Zealand, as can be seen in his famous 1770 map. Cook renamed Te Moana-o-Raukawa as Cook Strait, and imposed dozens more English place names.
Aotearoa (Māori: [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is the contemporary Māori language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island, the name of the whole country being Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu ("North Island and South Island").
For Aotearoa, is it widely assumed, is the original 'indigenous name' for New Zealand. It is certainly the 'modern' name favoured by many Māori and others. But our current common use and understanding of the name was probably not in existence before Western contact.
New Zealand was the largest country in Polynesia when it was annexed by Great Britain in 1840. Thereafter it was successively a crown colony, a self-governing colony (1856), and a dominion (1907).
Lieutenant James Cook made three journeys to Aotearoa, known also as New Zealand. During his first journey, the HMS Endeavour arrived at Kaiti Beach in 1769 and left from Rangitoto ki te Tonga in 1770.
In 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand. Once New Zealand was established as a state in 1840 relations have been good.
There are many accounts of mysterious people who were already in New Zealand when Polynesian voyagers arrived by canoe. It is said that they lived high in the mountains, and could be heard calling to each other. Two of these groups were known as the patupaiarehe and the tūrehu.
Australia was first settled around 50,000 years ago, and New Zealand around 1250–1300 CE. Europeans first thought about the two countries together when Charles de Brosses, a French scholar, described an imaginary southern continent called 'Australasie' (south of Asia) in 1756.
They came from Polynesia by waka (canoe). New Zealand has a shorter human history than any other country. The exact date of settlement is a matter of debate, but current understanding is that the first arrivals came from East Polynesia in the 13th century.
English explorer Captain James Cook reportedly "discovered" New Zealand's East Coast on October 7, 1769, hundreds of years after it had been settled by Maori. But two visits early this year have convinced Cedric Bell that Chinese ships were visiting New Zealand 2000 years ago.
Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand, though it seems at first to have been used for the North Island only.
The date of first settlement is a matter of debate, but current understanding is that the first arrivals came from East Polynesia between 1250 and 1300 AD.
The dutch explorer Abel Tasman is officially recognised as the first European to 'discover' New Zealand in 1642. His men were the first Europeans to have a confirmed encounter with Māori.
Where does the name Aotearoa come from? According to a group of University of Waikato academics writing in The Conversation, the precise origin of the name – which is commonly translated to “long white cloud” or “long bright world” – is not known. There are indications it has been in use for a long time.
Captain James Cook first came to New Zealand in 1769. After circumnavigating and mapping the coastline he sailed to Australia and landed at Botany Bay in 1770. The Australian Aborigines have been in Australia for at least 40,000 years and are not closely related to the Máori of New Zealand.
While there has been historical debate between Māori iwi across the North and South Islands, Tamihere says Aotearoa is "now widely accepted up and down the country as the term that defines what Pākehā continue to call New Zealand". "Changing the name to Aotearoa is what a lot of Māori want.
Being Māori is so much more than blood quantum. In New Zealand, many believed there are no full-blood Māori left. It's often been used by critics of Māori who seek equal rights and sovereignty. My results, at least, show there is one full-blooded Māori contrary to that belief.
For much of the first half of the 20th century it was believed that a pre-Māori people called Moriori inhabited New Zealand. Today Moriori are regarded as descendants, like Māori, of the original Polynesian settlers who arrived in about the 13th century.
Māori were the first inhabitants of Aotearoa New Zealand, guided by Kupe the great navigator. Learn more about the arrival of Māori.
New Zealand as an Australian state
One of the reasons that New Zealand chose not to join Australia was due to perceptions that the indigenous Māori population would suffer as a result.
There is no one Aboriginal word that all Aborigines use for Australia; however, today they call Australia, ""Australia"" because that is what it is called today. There are more than 250 aboriginal tribes in Australia. Most of them didn't have a word for ""Australia""; they just named places around them.
Aboriginal peoples
Genetic studies appear to support an arrival date of 50–70,000 years ago. The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in Australia (and outside of Africa) are those of Mungo Man; they have been dated at 42,000 years old.
The Māori are the Indigenous People of Aotearoa (New Zealand).
The ancestors of Māori arrived on canoes from Pacific islands before 1300 CE. Settling first on the coast, they hunted seals and moas. They also began to grow food, and some moved to the forests. They lived in small tribal groups, with a rich culture of spoken stories, and strong traditions of warfare.
The first migration
In Hawaiki, the ancient Polynesian homeland, warfare escalated between the Wheteina and Rauru tribes. It was sparked off in part by a lovers' spat, which ended in the death of one partner. This necessitated the hurried escape of the Wheteina people and their allies.