New Zealand is a young country in terms of its human history. New Zealand was the last large and livable place in the world to be discovered. Māori ancestors were the first settlers in New Zealand.
Although modern New Zealand archaeology has largely clarified questions of the origin and dates of the earliest migrations, some theorists have continued to speculate that what is now New Zealand was discovered by Melanesians, Celts, Greeks, Egyptians or the Chinese, before the arrival of the Polynesian ancestors of ...
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. It was not until 1642 that Europeans knew the country existed.
The conventional wisdom is that there were about 100,000 Māori alive in 1769, living on 268,000 square kilometres of temperate Aotearoa. This is a much lower population density (0.37 people per square kilometre) than densities achieved on tropical and much smaller Pacific Islands.
Tribal Waka
Each iwi has their own hapū (sub-tribes). Iwi can trace their entire origins and whakapapa (genealogy) back to certain waka hourua. The seven waka hourua that arrived to Aotearoa were Tainui, Te Arawa, Mātaatua, Kurahaupō, Tokomaru, Aotea and Tākitimu.
Many Māori traditions tell of the Polynesian settlers from Hawaiki, who reached the coast in canoes about 700 years ago.
Māori were the first inhabitants of Aotearoa New Zealand, guided by Kupe the great navigator. Learn more about the arrival of Māori.
Are Maoris and Australian aboriginals related? The Maori of New Zealand (NZ) and the Aborigines of Australia are not related in modern contexts. The Aborigines came to Australia about 40,000 years ago from Africa while the Maori came to NZ about 1,000 years ago from Polynesia.
Māori have had a long association of trade, migration and heritage with Australia since 1793. In that year two Northland ancestors arrived in Sydney after being kidnapped by the British. The following years saw Māori establish a strong economy of trade with New South Wales, enabling the survival of the fledging colony.
There was no known prehistoric contact between Australian Aboriginal people and New Zealand Māori, although the Māori's Polynesian ancestors were accomplished navigators. The first Māori known to have visited Australia travelled to Sydney in European trading ships from 1795 onwards.
The findings confirm archaeological evidence that the ancestors of today's Maori originally set out from mainland south-east Asia 6,000 years ago, hopped from island to island, starting with Taiwan, and arrived in New Zealand 800 to 1,000 years ago.
A DNA ethnicity test taken by more than 9 million people worldwide has discovered a full-blooded Māori, Native Affairs presenter Oriini Kaipara. Oriini took the Ancestry.com DNA test last year as part of a Native Affairs story on Māori identity.
You will not find Hawaiki on a map, but it is believed Māori came from an island or group of islands in Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. There are distinct similarities between the Māori language and culture and others of Polynesia including the Cook Islands, Hawaii, and Tahiti.
Originally composed solely of the indigenous Māori, the ethnic makeup of the population has been dominated since the 19th century by New Zealanders of European descent, mainly of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish ancestry, with smaller percentages of other European and Middle Eastern ancestries such as Greek, Turkish, ...
Māori were the first inhabitants of Aotearoa, New Zealand, guided by Kupe, the great navigator.
The Māori are the Indigenous People of Aotearoa (New Zealand).
19th century. There was no known prehistoric contact between Australian Aboriginal people and New Zealand Māori, although the Polynesian ancestors of Māori were accomplished navigators, who did establish short-lived settlements on Norfolk Island.
Hohepa Ruhe: [The first recorded Māori were] two men called Tuki Tahua and Ngāhuruhuru. They arrived in April 15, 1793 from the Far North of New Zealand. The governor of Norfolk Island at the time was Philip Gidley King.
In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between representatives of the United Kingdom and various Māori chiefs, bringing New Zealand into the British Empire and giving Māori the same rights as British subjects.
Australia is made up of many different and distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, each with their own culture, language, beliefs and practices. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the first peoples of Australia, meaning they were here for thousands of years prior to colonisation.
Humans are thought to have migrated to Northern Australia from Asia using primitive boats. A current theory holds that those early migrants themselves came out of Africa about 70,000 years ago, which would make Aboriginal Australians the oldest population of humans living outside Africa.
The first genome analysis of an Aborigine reveals that these early Australians took part in the first human migration out of Africa. They were the first to arrive in Asia some 70,000 years ago, roaming the area at least 24,000 years before the ancestors of present-day Europeans and Asians.
Today, the population of New Zealand(opens in new window) is made up of people from a range of backgrounds; 70% are of European descent, 16.5% are indigenous Māori, 15.1% Asian and 8.1% non-Māori Pacific Islanders.
The answer is genetics. Māori, and Polynesians, evolved to store fat on long ocean voyages and to insulate against winter, especially in Āotearoa. This was fine when Māori were more active, but today with sedentary lifestyles, it doesn't work in our favour as it once did.
Collectively, the Khoikhoi and San are called the Khoisan and often called the world's first or oldest people, according to the biggest and most detailed analysis of African DNA. A report from NPR details how more than 22,000 years ago, the Nama were the largest group of humans on earth and a tribe of hunter-gatherers.