Colonial New Zealand

Values and beliefs

Source 1

According to the New Zealand museum their believed that gods, or atua, inhabit the natural world and shape the destinies of its people. According to The University Of Waikato, one of the Maori's biggest values was as a leader, that they do not take credit for any of the work, it was that a great leader was behind the scenes.

Diet

According to the Auckland Museum they ate root vegetables, Kiore which is Polynesian rat and Kuri which is Polynesian dog. They also hunted a wide range of birds such as mutton birds and moa. They also ate seafood, ferns, vines, palms, fungi, berries, fruit and seeds.

Source 2

Family Life and lifestyle.

According to the Auckland Museum, a day in the life of a Maori person would start early with prayers and singing to worship the rising sun. They spent their time getting food so all they did was planting and tending crops in communal gardens or they would be fishing or gathering seafood.

Source 3

Social organisation!

According to this primary source, Maori society was seperated into heaps of large tribes called iwis. Each iwi was formed of a number of small tribes called hapus, with each led by an ariki, or chief. The hapus came together to form the iwi in times of war. Each hapu was further divided into a number of whanaus, or families. Within those groups their is the chief at the top, and then priests, and then healers, then warriors then "normal people".

Source 4

Clothing

Source 5

According to this primary source, they wore a kilt secured by a belt, over their shoulders they wore rectangular shaped capes. Women and girls sometimes added a kind of apron round their waist. A chaplet or headband were used for keeping feathers for dress occasions.

Summary

The maori people lived peacefully on the North Island of New Zealand from 1300CE. They then expanded down to the South coast. They had a very good culture with temples and statues all around their towns. They were seperated into little tribes called iwi's.

Summary of Maori

The colonisers!

The British colonised New Zealand in 1840. Britain was motivated by the desire to forestall the New Zealand Company and other European powers. Over the North Island on the basis of cession through the Treaty of Waitangi, and over the southern islands by 'right of discovery'.

The colonisers

Long term

Colonisation meant that they could not do all of their traditional practices, and it meant they lost large areas of land which also resulted in the loss of many cultural protective factors for Maori wahine and tamariki. The population also declined very quickly after being colonised.

Short term

A lot of diseases came with the colonisation of New Zealand including measles, mumps and whooping cough. After the colonisation 50% of the deaths were children. 25% of girls died before reaching 9 months of age and 50% before they turned 7.

Short term

New Zealand today

Today

The Maori are disadvantaged socially and economically. They are on low wages and unemployment rates are high. They also suffer higher levels of crime, health problems, imprisonmet and education under-achievement.

Perspective

Did you know? The life expectancy of Maori people drastically declined upon Captain Cook's arrival in New Zealand. But why did this happen? Before modern colonization, the Maori people had a lifespan comparable to the privileged societies of the 18th century. Let's uncover the factors behind this alarming change and understand its profound implications on Maori history and identity.

the maori population also had a major deline. In 1769 there where around 100,00 people and at its lowest in 1896 it was estimated 42,000.

Perspective