Māori culture

[1][2] Within Māoridom, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori culture, the Māori-language suffix -tanga being roughly equivalent to the qualitative noun-ending -ness in English.

[13] The immigrants brought many edible plants from their home islands in the central Pacific, and of these kūmara (sweet potato) would become the most important as the colder climate meant that tropical staple crops needed careful cultivation to survive, and some failed to grow locally.

[23] The new land also provided new opportunities: Māori learned to use local resources like pounamu, native timber, harakeke and the abundant birdlife, producing practical tools or food, as well as beautiful ornaments and items of clothing.

The widespread construction of large fortifications called pā on prominent hills and spurs dates from this time, as evidence of the development of a more martial, tribal culture.

[28] After the European explorers, encounters at the turn of the century in Aotearoa were with whaling ships from America, France, Norway, Spain, and the British corporation the East India Company who visited regularly, setting conditions for a period of trade.

[30][31][27] Small numbers of European whalers, sealers, traders, escaped convicts from Australia and runaway sailors established themselves especially in Northland and very south of New Zealand with the first Pākehā settlement at Doubtful Sound Patea in 1792.

The mission at "Paihia, directly opposite the notoriously lawless settlement of Kororāreka (later Russell), [was set up] to contrast Christianity with the decadent forms of European life".

Ranginui Walker states that this "institutionalisation of racism at the inception of democracy in New Zealand was the root cause of the conflict between Māori and Pākehā in the North Island and the colonial spoliation which followed".

In 1870 Justice Minister Henry Sewell (in office 1870–1871) described the aims of the Native Land Court as "to bring the great bulk of the lands in the Northern Island [...] within the reach of colonisation" and "the detribalisation of the Māori – to destroy, if it were possible, the principle of communism upon which their social system is based and which stands as a barrier in the way of all attempts to amalgamate the Māori race into our social and political system.

From the early 1990s a series of favourable outcomes from the treaty tribunal resulted in a large flow of capital in the form of land, primary resources and cash from the government to various Māori iwi (tribe or nation) and hapū (subtribe or clan).

[76] Historian Judith Binney says that maintaining and increasing the mana of whānau and hapū and loyalty within the group is unquestionably at the heart of Māori cultural concepts.

[88] The social mores and divine origins associated with tapu led Elsdon Best to detect the evolution of "a somewhat theocratic form of government" among pre-contact Māori.

Europeans introduced Māori to their more figurative style of art, and in the 19th century less stylised depictions of people and plants began to appear on wharenui walls in place of traditional carvings and woven panels.

The paper mulberry was introduced from the tropical Pacific by Māori, who knew it as aute,[128] but it failed to flourish in New Zealand's cooler climate, and tapa (bark cloth) was rare.

[134][135] Women covered their pubic area with small aprons or bunches of fragrant plant material when in the presence of men[135][136][137] – although these parts could be exposed in whakapohane (a gesture of contempt).

[140] There was no shame or modesty attached to women's breasts, and therefore no garments devoted to concealing them;[141] the pari (tāniko bodices) now worn in kapa haka performances became standard costume only in the 1950s.

Māori newspapers eagerly reported on events from overseas that showed groups such as the Irish challenging British sovereignty to obtain home rule.

They appear in films such as Whale Rider, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, The Matrix, River Queen, The Lord of the Rings, Rapa Nui, and others, and famous television series like Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The Lost World and Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

In the 2010s Māori actor-director Taika Waititi rose to global fame with the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thor: Ragnarok (in which he played an alien named Korg),[150] which many critics noted carried a sophisticated commentary on colonisation under the comedy.

The marae generally consists of an open cleared area in front of a large carved meeting house often called a wharenui, along with a dining hall and other facilities.

In the 19th century settlements were hapū-based, and 5 buildings became standardised: the sleeping whare, kauta or communal cookhouse/shelter, whata or wood store, pataka or storehouse, and increasingly from the 1870s wharepuni or community meeting house.

Te Atua Wera taught that heaven was a place where there was happiness, no cold or hunger with an abundance of flour, sugar, muskets, ships, murder and voluptuousness.

[190][191] Historian Paul Moon writes of missionaries reporting how families forced some of their young girls into the sex trade with the object of obtaining valuable and scarce English goods in the 1820s.

[194] Sam Ritchie points out that Moon fails to contextualize his interpretation of missionary writing and accepts it at face value without adequately considering other sources or the reasons behind such reports.

When missionaries back in arrived in the Bay of Islands they realised that if they were going to introduce Christianity and change what they considered to be barbaric practices like cannibalism, slavery, lewd dancing and having multiple wives, they would need to establish schools.

Māori paid customs duties to the government and invested heavily in vessels, so suffered considerably when a dramatic market slump hit New Zealand especially effecting the Auckland–Waikato–Hauraki area.

This was rare before 1834 but became increasingly common as more Māori worked as sailors on European ships, where they gained a good reputation as being strong capable workers.

In 1823 a man called Te Puaha visited the Bay of Islands, bringing back with him Captain Kent who arrived on his ship, Elizabeth Henrietta, at Kāwhia in 1824.

[229][230] Several North Island candidates who were asked to put themselves forward declined,[231] but in February 1857 Wiremu Tamihana, a chief of the Ngāti Hauā iwi in eastern Waikato, proposed the elderly and high-ranking Waikato chief Te Wherowhero as an ideal monarch and despite his initial reluctance he was crowned at Ngāruawāhia in June 1858, later adopting the name Pōtatau Te Wherowhero or simply Pōtatau.

[234] Pōtatau was succeeded at his death in 1860 by Matutaera Tāwhiao, whose 34-year reign coincided with the military invasion of the Waikato, which was partly aimed at crushing the Kingitanga movement, with the government viewing it as a challenge to the supremacy of the British monarchy.