The first people to arrive in New Zealand were ancestors of the Māori. The first settlers probably arrived from Polynesia between 1200 and 1300 AD. They discovered New Zealand as they explored the Pacific, navigating by the ocean currents, winds and stars.
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 ...
First contacts. By the time the first Europeans arrived, Māori had settled the land, every corner of which came within the interest and influence of a tribal (iwi) or sub-tribal (hapū) grouping. Abel Tasman was the first of the European explorers known to have reached New Zealand, in December 1642.
The Ngaitahu held that the first human was a male who was created out of earth by Tane and given the name of Tiki or Tikiauaha. The sexual parts were supplied by other gods. The Ngati Hau of Whanganui and the Ngati Tuwharetoa of Taupo say that Tiki was the first man but the brief records do not give the creator.
The history of New Zealand (Aotearoa) dates back to between 1320 and 1350 CE, when the main settlement period started, after it was discovered by Kupe and settled by Polynesians, who developed a distinct Māori culture.
Appo Hocton (1819[23?]-1920) was the first naturalised Chinese immigrant to New Zealand. He arrived in Nelson in 1842 after deserting the ship on which he was a steward and became a property developer, merchant and farmer.
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.
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.
Many Māori traditions tell of the Polynesian settlers from Hawaiki, who reached the coast in canoes about 700 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.
Kupe. According to Māori myth, New Zealand (Aotearoa in the Māori language) was discovered by Kupe, a fisherman and Rangatira (chief) from Hawaiki. Kupe's fishing grounds were being troubled by an octopus, who kept eating all the bait off of the fisherman's lines.
The 1860s saw confiscations of huge areas by the government and large areas of land began to be lost through the effect of the Native Land Court. The period between 1890 and 1920 saw a boom in government land purchases, despite Māori protests. By 1937, very little land was left in Māori ownership.
By letters patent, the British (Imperial) Government issued the Charter for Erecting the Colony of New Zealand on 16 November 1840. The Charter stated that the Colony of New Zealand would be established as a Crown colony separate from New South Wales on 3 May 1841.
Tommy Solomon (Tame Horomona-Rehe) is pictured here as a young boy (sitting at left) with a group of Moriori, probably around 1890. Solomon, who died in 1933, came to be known in his later years as the last 'full-blooded' Moriori.
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.
The first people to reach New Zealand were Polynesians who set out from the central Pacific on deliberate voyages of discovery in large canoes. They reached New Zealand, in the south-west corner of the Pacific, between 1250 and 1300 AD.
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.
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.
Beginning. The 1888–1889 New Zealand Native football team organised by Joseph Warbrick toured New Zealand, Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The team became the first New Zealand side to perform a haka during its match v Surrey, and also the first to wear an all black uniform.
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, ...
For millennia, Māori have been the tangata whenua, the indigenous people of Aotearoa. Arriving here from the Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki over 1,000 years ago, the great explorer Kupe, was the first Māori to reach these lands.
Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand.
Living off the land
Māori were expert hunters, gatherers and growers. They wove fishing nets from harakeke (flax), and carved fishhooks from bone and stone. They hunted native birds, including moa, the world's largest bird, with a range of ingenious traps and snares.
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.
The large arrow shows the actual origin of the Māori people's ancestors – around Taiwan. The smaller arrows show their migration through Melanesia and across the Pacific.