Māori were the first to arrive in New Zealand, journeying in canoes from Hawaiki about 1,000 years ago. A Dutchman, Abel Tasman, was the first European to sight the country but it was the British who made New Zealand part of their empire.
There is a lot of evidence that Polynesian people first arrived in New Zealand around 1250–1300 CE, coming from East Polynesia in canoes.
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.
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.
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 ...
According to the people of Ngāpuhi (tribe of the Far North), the first explorer to reach New Zealand was the intrepid ancestor, Kupe. Using the stars and ocean currents as his navigational guides, he ventured across the Pacific on his waka hourua (voyaging canoe) from his ancestral Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki.
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.
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.
Māori (Māori: [ˈmaːɔɾi] ( listen)) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (Aotearoa). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350.
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.
New Zealand was the last major landmass settled by humans. The story of Kupe as the first human to set foot on the New Zealand archipelago, accredited to by most Māori iwi, is considered credible by historians; he is generally believed to have existed historically.
Māori on the first map
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.
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.
Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, they settled here over 700 years ago. They came from Polynesia by waka (canoe). New Zealand has a shorter human history than any other country.
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.
The indigenous tribes of people living in Australia are referred to as aboriginal, their Trans Tasman counterparts, the indigenous or native population of New Zealand is labeled as Maori.
Shared history
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.
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.
Abel Tasman's Dutch East India Company expedition had the first known European contact with Māori.
The first Chinese man, Appo Hocton, arrived in New Zealand in 1853 and was naturalised. In the 1860s, Chinese immigrants were invited to New Zealand by the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce to replace the western goldminers who had followed the gold-fever to Australia.
The seven waka hourua that arrived to Aotearoa were Tainui, Te Arawa, Mātaatua, Kurahaupō, Tokomaru, Aotea and Tākitimu.
From 1939 to 1941, 256 Chinese women and 244 Chinese children arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand as refugees. The New Zealand Chinese Association had appealed to the government to allow Chinese men to bring their wives and children to New Zealand to escape the Japanese invasion of China during World War 2.
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.
The Meeting Place: Māori and Pākehā Encounters, 1642-1840.
About the team
The Māori All Blacks is a historic team representing the proud culture of New Zealand. In 1888 New Zealand Natives was one of the country's maiden national rugby sides, playing Hawke's Bay in their first ever match on June 23, with the Natives winning 5-0.