Māori culture () is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand. Māori culture is a part of Eastern Polynesian culture and forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture. The culture is found throughout the world due to a large diaspora and the incorporation of Māori motifs into popular culture.
Within Māoridom, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori culture, the Māori-language suffix being roughly equivalent to the qualitative noun-ending -ness in English. has also been translated as "[a] Māori way of life." The term , meaning the guiding beliefs and principles which act as a base or foundation for behaviour, is also widely used to refer to Māori cultural values.Barnes, Helen Moewaka. "Kaupapa maori: explaining the ordinary." Pacific Health Dialog 7, no. 1 (2000): 13–16.
Four distinct but overlapping cultural eras have contributed historically to Māori culture: Archaic period – before Māori split from other Polynesian cultures Classic period – before European contact 19th century – early interaction with Europeans Post 1900 – till present
in the modern era has been shaped by increasing urbanisation, closer contact with Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent) and revival of traditional practices.
Traditional Māori arts play a large role in New Zealand art. They include (carving), (weaving), (group performance), (oratory), and (tattoo). The patterns and characters represented record the beliefs and genealogies () of Māori. Practitioners often follow the techniques of their ancestors, but in the 21st century Māoritanga also includes contemporary arts such as film, television, poetry and theatre.
The Māori language is known as , shortened to (literally, "the language"). At the beginning of the twentieth century, it seemed as if – as well as other aspects of Māori life – might disappear. In the 1980s, however, government-sponsored schools (Kura Kaupapa Māori) began to teach in , educating those with European as well as those with Māori ancestry.
Tikanga Māori is a set of cultural values, customs, and practices. This includes concepts such as what is sacred, caring for your community, rights to land by occupation, and other relationships between people and their environment. Tikanga differs from a western ethical or judicial systems because it is not administered by a central authority or an authoritative set of documents. It is a more fluid and dynamic set of practices and community accountability is "the most effective mechanism for enforcing tikanga."
History
Māori cultural history intertwines inextricably with the culture of Polynesia as a whole. The New Zealand archipelago forms the southwestern corner of the Polynesian Triangle, a major part of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners: the Hawaiian Islands, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and New Zealand (Aotearoa in te reo Māori). The many island cultures within the Polynesian Triangle share similar languages descended from a Proto-Polynesian language, which itself descends from a Proto-Malayo-Polynesian language used in southeastern Asia 5,000 years ago. Polynesians also share cultural traditions such as religion, social organisation, myths, and material culture. Anthropologists believe that all Polynesians descend from a South Pacific proto-culture developed by an Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) people who had migrated from southeastern Asia. Other significant Polynesian cultures include those of Rapa Nui (now known as Easter Island), Hawaii, the Marquesas, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. Over the last five millennia, proto-Polynesians and their descendants performed a sequence of complicated and remarkable transoceanic treks in an unprecedented accomplishment of navigation and curiosity. The final ocean travel included long distances to Hawaii, Rapa Nui, and Aotearoa.
Archaic period c. 1300–1500
Researchers often label the time from about 1280 to about 1450 the Archaic period or "Moa-hunter period" – after the moa, the large flightless bird that formed a large part of the diet of the early Polynesian settlers. 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. The became associated in several Polynesian and Maori myth traditionsFor some of the "numerous" different kūmara myths, compare: with Rongomātāne (Rongo-mā-Tāne or Rongo) a high-ranking (god) in several Polynesian pantheons as the patron of agriculture/horticulture – and who had particular associations with sweet potatoes.
These early colonists explored New Zealand to find suitable stones for tool-making. The main stone-source areas included Mayor Island, Taupō and Kerikeri for obsidian (volcanic glass); prospectors soon found (greenstone or jade) and (argillite) resources in the South Island in the areas of present-day Reefton and Nelson. Basalt was later also found which is prospected to have a use in construction. Stone served in all aspects of Polynesian life: from chopping wood to cutting and slicing food, as anchors for (canoes) and for fishing nets, for retaining the heat in a , as drills using chert, and for stone clubs. These practices, well preserved at the Wairau Bar archeological site, were typical of East Polynesian culture at the same time.
Two Polynesian artefacts link early settlers to Polynesia. One, a turret shell only found in the South Pacific islands, most notably in the Society Islands, has been reworked into a small chisel found at Wairau Bar and dated to about 1300. The other is a 6 cm-long Polynesian pearl fishing-lure found at Tairua in 1962. This lure has been reliably dated to the early- to mid-14th century. It was found at a typical small coastal moa-hunters' site which has been interpreted as an itinerant hunting camp ().CFG Heritage Ltd. Louise Furey. 2009. Report to Historical Places Trust.2009. The discovery of Mayor Island obsidian on the Kermadec Islands, halfway between New Zealand and Tonga, strongly suggests that return journeys were made.
The new land also provided new opportunities: Māori learned to use local resources like pounamu, native timber, and the abundant birdlife, producing practical tools or food, as well as beautiful ornaments and items of clothing. This adaptation to the opportunities and challenges of the new environment led to the development of the Classic Māori culture.
Classic period c. 1500 AD
Māori artifacts began to change around the 15th century from an East Polynesian style to one more recognisably "classic" Māori, a style which persisted well into the contact period in the 18th and 19th centuries. At the same time, Māori groups became less nomadic, more settled in defined territories, and more dependent on gardening as a food source. Reliance on stored food such as kūmara tubers meant that stores needed to be protected from marauding neighbours. The widespread construction of large fortifications called on prominent hills and spurs dates from this time, as evidence of the development of a more martial, tribal culture. Not all aspects of this culture occurred universally, particularly in the South Island where kūmara could not be easily grown.
European contact from c. 1800 AD Māori had encounters with European explorers from ships captained by Abel Tasman in 1642, James Cook three times between 1769 and 1777, Jean-François de Surville in 1769 and Marian du Fresne in 1772 which included violent encounters and also trade and exchange. Māori learnt of firearms during these encounters; it is believed the first firearms were acquired by Bay of Islands Māori around 1806.
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. Māori travelled overseas from the late 1790s with chiefs going to Sydney 'in search of bartering opportunities', and some working on various types of ships travelling to Britain, Australia and America. 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 first Christian missions clustered in the Bay of Islands: with Samuel Marsden, the senior Church of England chaplain in New South Wales fostering the foundation of the first mission station in Aotearoa in 1814–15. Marsden's party introduced horses and cattle.
With trade and travel Māori shifted to intensive horticulture and pastoral agriculture and as early as 1803 Maori were trading goods such as potatoes, pigs and maize. Māori invested in ploughs, mills, carts, and ships to transport their goods. The first Māori water-powered mill was built at Aotea, Raglan Harbour in 1846 and many more had been built by 1860.
Early industry by Māori was in part driven by the desire to trade for firearms. The Musket Wars (of 1807–1837) significantly altered intertribal conflict and there was seen a dramatic increase in casualties with many thousands of Māori people killed, some estimates over 60,000.
Populations of Māori to Europeans changed greatly during the 1800s.Henry Williams estimated in 1839 only a 1100 Europeans in the North Island, with 200 of them missionaries, and a total of about 500–600 Europeans in the Bay of Islands. The northern Māori population at the time has been estimated at 30,000 to 40,000, down from about 100,000 fifty years before. This drop in population was mostly due to the introduction of European diseases (measles and influenza) and to the Musket Wars. The Pākehā population doubled in the 1850s, surpassing the Māori population by the late 1860s, 1896 Māori population was about 40,000 and Pākehā was 700,000.
Alcohol was not present in Māori culture before European contact. Many Māori supported Henry Williams who opposed "the activities of grog-sellers, gun-runners and other irreligious Europeans in the Bay of Islands". 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".
European settlers brought their culture about sexuality and sexual violence to New Zealand. Sex within Māori culture was an open discussion, people chose their own sexual partners and 'accepted that sex before marriage occurred'. In Māori society assault on a woman was a serious offence different to English laws. Before 1896 under English law the age of consent was 12 years old and incest was not considered a crime. European settlers had double standards of it being more acceptable for men to have sex outside of marriage, women were blamed for prostitution and rape was rarely prosecuted. The Victorian ethos that came with colonisation undermined the role of women in Māori society.
Many Māori started adopting the Christian faith from 1830s onwards, over time creating a uniquely Māori Christianity. Burial practices changed to incorporate aspects of Christianity. Bodies were usually buried in the ground by the mid-1840s, although sometimes coffins decorated with Māori motifs were used, suspended in trees or on poles as drawn by J. Polack. These were highly .