Essayist:
Peter Adds, PhD
School of Maori, Pacific and Samoan Studies
Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand

The First Settlers of Aotearoa

The question of the origin of the Maori people of Aotearoa New Zealand, and indeed Polynesians generally, has produced many theories since Europeans first appeared in the Pacific. The modern scientific "orthodox" theory, however, comes mostly from the work of archaeologists, linguists and increasingly, from the scientists who study human DNA. The story that has emerged from these studies is very compelling, although parts of it are still somewhat incomplete.

View of Jerusalem (Hiruharama) village from higher ground with two palms in the foreground, Whanganui River, North Island

The research shows that the direct ancestors of the Maori arrived from somewhere in east Polynesia between 700-1000 years ago. Their arrival in Aotearoa, or New Zealand was the last step in a much bigger and more ancient movement of people across the Pacific from Southeast Asia from about 5-7000 years ago that saw every island in Oceania that is capable of sustaining human life colonized. New Zealand is sometimes described, in fact, as being the last major piece of real estate in the entire world (with the exception of Antarctica) to be settled by humans.

An important point to note about the arrival of the first humans in New Zealand is that they were not Maori people per se. They were East Polynesians who came from some island or group of islands in the tropical east such as Tahiti, the Marquesas Islands or perhaps the southern Cook Islands. So far, it has not been possible to pinpoint the precise island or islands that the first colonizers came from. The best that can be said for now is that the early artifacts of New Zealand are so similar to artifacts from a number of different parts of east Polynesia that any, or perhaps all, of these places are possible points of origin. What is very clear however is that the settlers did not come from the geographically much closer west Polynesia where quite different styles of artifacts were made. Soon, however, with the rapid development of technologies associated with DNA "fingerprinting" it should be possible to say with a high degree of confidence who the Maori people of New Zealand are most closely related to from a genetic perspective.

Kura Takai Puni- Encircling Fern Frond. Maori art is characterized by a predominantly curvilinear design tradition.

Having arrived in New Zealand, these east Polynesians attempted to replicate the tropical life style they had been used to living. The problem with this is that New Zealand is anything but tropical and has a much bigger more diverse landscape than these people would have experienced before. For example, the climate at the top of the North Island of New Zealand is sometimes described as "winterless" whereas the climate at the bottom of the South Island is sometimes described as sub-Antarctic. As well, there are many variations in landform, geography, geology and flora and fauna amongst other things in the different regions of New Zealand. All of this meant that the first settlers who arrived in the different parts of New Zealand were confronted with quite different sets of conditions to contend with. For some, adapting from the tropical mode would have been relatively easy, but for others major changes to lifestyle were required to ensure their survival. This process of changing and adapting to the different conditions of New Zealand eventually led to changes in the "shape" of the culture of the people. Over a relatively short period of time, so much culture change had occurred amongst the settlers that the archaeologists say that these people changed from having a culture that we define as east Polynesian into the Maori culture of New Zealand. Strictly speaking therefore, as one prominent authority puts it, the Maori did not come from anywhere. The Maori became Maori and the location of their becoming was New Zealand itself.

Although New Zealand has a relatively short "prehistory" compared to most other parts of Polynesia, there was nonetheless a tremendous amount of change from early to late. Tracking this change has been a major challenge for archaeologists because of regional variation across the country but most authorities agree that generally there were three main phases of development that occurred — early middle and late.

The early phase is associated with coming to grips with the new landscape and exploring and discovering what it had to offer. The adaptations and changes associated with these things led to the development of Maori culture by the start of the middle period. The middle period is associated with even more change, population growth, the intensification of horticulture, the development of a more complex political life, and eventually warfare. The late period is associated with highly developed art, weaponry, music and dance, and law and religion, among other things.