60 Fun Facts About Māori

Māori are descended from settlers who voyaged by canoe from which part of the Pacific?

The main settlement period was the first half of the 14th century, and the culture then evolved in isolation for centuries.

In the Māori language, what does the word "māori" itself mean?

In legend the word separated ordinary mortal humans from gods and spirits, and wai māori means fresh water as opposed to salt.

What is the traditional Māori greeting in which two people press their noses together?

The greeting exchanges the ha, or breath of life, and some East Coast iwi press noses twice.

What is a hāngī?

Lamb, pork, chicken, root vegetables and pumpkin go into baskets on top of the hot stones, and the whole thing is buried for hours.

The haka "Ka Mate", made famous by the All Blacks, is attributed to which Ngāti Toa war leader?

He composed it around 1820 to celebrate a lucky escape from pursuing enemies, a triumph of life over death.

In which year was the 2009 settlement over ownership of the haka Ka Mate signed?

The government agreed to record the haka's authorship but ruled out royalties or a veto on performances.

The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February of which year?

It was signed on the grounds of James Busby's house at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, now known as the Treaty House.

Waitangi Day was first celebrated in 1934, but in which year did it become a nationwide public holiday?

It was briefly renamed New Zealand Day under Norman Kirk's Labour government before the old name was restored.

Roughly how many Māori signed the Māori-language version of the Treaty of Waitangi?

At least 13 of the signatories were women, and some leaders cautioned against signing at all.

Which Māori word, used in the Treaty's first article, was a loan translation of "governorship" that did not previously exist in the language?

Scholars such as Ruth Ross argue "mana" would have conveyed a transfer of sovereignty far more clearly, which is why the two texts still clash.

Which missionary translated the Treaty of Waitangi from English into Māori?

Some historians argue he carefully crafted both versions so each side found the deal palatable without noticing the contradictions.

The Treaty of Waitangi Act, which created the Waitangi Tribunal, was passed in which year?

The same year Whina Cooper led the great land march to Parliament, marking a turning point in Māori-Crown relations.

Te reo Māori was given official status by the Māori Language Act of which year?

New Zealand now has three official languages: te reo Māori, New Zealand Sign Language and English.

The Kōhanga Reo movement, begun in 1982, revived te reo Māori by doing what?

The name means "language nest"; the movement grew from the protest era of the 1970s.

Māori Language Week includes which September date, when a 30,000-signature petition reached Parliament in 1972?

That petition day became Māori Language Day and by 1975 had grown into the first Māori Language Week.

Te reo Māori is most closely related to Tahitian and which other language?

It is the southernmost member of the whole Austronesian family, which stretches back to the indigenous peoples of Taiwan.

What is the most popular translation of Aotearoa, the Māori name now used for New Zealand?

As late as the 1890s the name referred only to the North Island; William Pember Reeves used it for the whole country in his 1898 history.

In Māori tradition, Māui hauled up the North Island using a hook made from what?

His brothers refused him bait, so he struck his own nose and baited the hook with blood.

Māui's final trick, which cost him his life, involved which goddess?

She had fled to the underworld and become the goddess of death after learning the truth about her parentage.

Why, in Māori legend, did Māui set out to snare the sun?

Armed with the jawbone and ropes, said in some tellings to be made from his sister Hina's hair, he and his brothers ambushed the sun in its pit.

In the Māori creation story, which god finally forced apart the sky father and the earth mother?

Tūmatauenga had proposed killing the parents instead; Taranaki traditions credit the sea god with the separation.

Which god of storms and winds was angered by the separation of his parents and attacked his brothers?

In one tradition he plucked out his own eyes and flung them into the sky, where they became the star cluster Matariki.

Matariki, the Māori New Year celebration, is named for which star cluster?

The name is short for a phrase meaning "the eyes of the god" and refers both to the cluster and to one star within it.

Matariki was first observed as an official New Zealand public holiday in which year?

The celebration had faded during the 20th century before reviving in the early 1990s.

According to Māori tradition, who was the first person to discover New Zealand?

Legend has him chasing and killing the great octopus Te Wheke-a-Muturangi on the voyage from the homeland of Hawaiki.

What is Hawaiki in Māori tradition?

Its geographic location is uncertain; the legendary discoverer of New Zealand was said to have been born there to a Rarotongan father and a Raʻiātean mother.

Which descendants of early Māori settlers became the pacifist indigenous people of the Chatham Islands?

They were later massacred and subjugated during an invasion by Taranaki iwi in the Musket Wars era.

Which large flightless bird was a mainstay of the early Māori diet before it was hunted to extinction?

The earliest settlement period is sometimes simply called the "Moahunter" period.

Who was the first European explorer to reach New Zealand, in 1642?

Four of his men were killed and he never landed; Cook did not arrive until 1769.

What is the Māori term for New Zealanders of European descent?

Early Māori valued these newcomers as a means to acquire Western knowledge, technology and, fatefully, muskets.

The acquisition of which European technology triggered New Zealand's early 19th-century Musket Wars?

The potato arrived at the same time and revolutionised agriculture, freeing up men and food for long campaigns.

Which crop brought from Polynesia became the most important food plant of pre-European Māori?

The colder climate meant tropical staples struggled, and the tuber became linked in myth to Rongo, the god of cultivated food.

What is pounamu?

It is found only in New Zealand, whereas much of the "greenstone" in souvenir shops is jade sourced overseas.

What is the open space in front of a wharenui (meeting house) called?

The meeting house is the realm of the peace god Rongo, while the space outside belongs to the war god Tūmatauenga.

Historically, tā moko differed from ordinary tattooing because the skin was carved with what?

The chisels, often made of albatross bone and struck with a mallet, left grooves in the skin, and some artists returned to them in the 2000s.

On which parts of the face did Māori women traditionally wear moko?

Men typically wore moko on the whole face, buttocks and thighs; the chin design is known as moko kauae.

What is the largest social unit in traditional Māori society, usually translated as "tribe"?

Each one contains several hapū, or sub-tribes, which in turn are made up of whānau, or extended families.

Which Northland-based iwi is the largest by population?

It counted more than 165,000 members in the 2018 census, well ahead of Ngāti Porou of the East Cape.

Who was crowned the first Māori King in 1858?

He initially declined, describing himself as too old, and died of influenza just two years later.

Tūrangawaewae Marae, headquarters of the Māori King Movement, is in which town?

The eighth monarch, Nga wai hono i te po, was crowned there in September 2024.

At what age did Dame Whina Cooper lead the 1,100 km Māori land march to Wellington?

The slogan was "not one more acre of Māori land", and she is the subject of a recent biopic, Whina.

The 28th (Māori) Battalion of the Second World War became notable for which distinction?

It fought in Greece, North Africa and Italy, and its reputation was acknowledged by German as well as Allied commanders.

What is the name of the national kapa haka competition, running since 1972, held every two years?

Kapa haka groups can range from a handful to dozens of performers, in costume or not.

Which team, now the Māori All Blacks, played its first match in 1888?

Their 1888–89 tour of Europe beat Ireland in Dublin before losses to Wales and England.

Māori war canoes, or waka taua, could be manned by up to how many paddlers?

The largest were up to 40 metres long and were traditionally regarded as highly tapu, or sacred.

Where is the best-known Archaic Māori site, the only one in New Zealand with bones of people born elsewhere?

It lies in the South Island and shows occupation from the early 13th to the early 15th century.

The New Zealand Declaration of Independence, signed at Waitangi, dates from which year?

It was in that document that Henry Williams first used the word kāwanatanga, five years before it reappeared in the Treaty.

Which 1994 film from an Alan Duff novel was New Zealand's top-grossing movie until 2006?

Some Māori feared audiences would take its violent male characters as typical, but most critics praised it and it won several international prizes.

Māori have held reserved seats in New Zealand's Parliament since which year?

Māori reserved electorates now account for seven of the 120 seats; universal suffrage came in 1893.

Which Labour politician became New Zealand's first female Māori Foreign Minister in 2020?

She replaced Winston Peters, also Māori, and in 2016 had become the first MP to wear moko kauae, the traditional female chin tattoo.

What share of New Zealand's population identified as Māori at the 2023 census?

That is 887,493 people, up 14.4% since 2018; the median Māori age of 26.8 is far younger than the national 38.1.

Which Australian state had the most residents identifying as Māori at the 2021 census?

Some 170,057 Australians identified as Māori, with 65,031 in Queensland ahead of New South Wales and Western Australia.

In which month and year did the government-funded Māori Television channel begin broadcasting?

It is committed to broadcasting primarily in te reo; the 2013 census recorded 125,352 Māori with conversational fluency.

How many Māori MPs sat in the 54th Parliament after the 2023 election, a record high?

That is 27% of the parliament, against a Māori share of about 17% in the general population.

What kind of building was a whare tapere in pre-European Māori culture?

They were sites of storytelling, dance and puppetry; Māori theatre later flourished in the 1970s and 80s with groups like Te Ohu Whakaari.

Which Māori director played Adolf Hitler in his own Oscar-winning 2019 film Jojo Rabbit?

He had already reached global fame directing Thor: Ragnarok in 2017.

What did James Cook estimate the Māori population to be in the late 18th century?

Under the Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1974, a Māori is anyone of the Māori race and their descendants, replacing an earlier 50%-ancestry test.

How many of New Zealand's 199 competitors at the 2016 Rio Olympics were of Māori descent?

That is 20.5%, and the rugby sevens squads alone had 17 Māori players out of 24.

Which two Māori novelists join Alan Duff as notable names in the literature section?

European-style literacy in the 19th century led to Māori history being recorded in books and later novels.

How much lower was Māori male life expectancy than non-Māori male life expectancy in 2017–2019?

Māori men averaged 73.4 years against 80.9 for non-Māori; for women the gap was 7.3 years.