Maori Culture

The Beginning

According to the Maori Culture Earth Mother and Sky Father lived together and gave birth to many sons; gods. Their parents were living so closely together that no light could enter the world; sky and earth were to close. The children decided to separate them, they finally succeeded. Women needed to be created to form an inhabited earth. One of the sons created a woman and married her afterwards in order to secure a populated world. This is how it all started.

New Zealand’s “Birth”

New Zealand’s “birth” took place a long time after how it all started. Maui, a demigod, paddled around in his canoe. After he dropped down his magic fish hook he got an immense huge fish on the hook. He pulled it up and Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui), the northern island of New Zealand, was “born”. Te Waka o Maui (Maui’s canoe) became the southern island. This myth is known in most of the Polynesian Cultures.

Tribal Society

Originally the Maori Society is tribal. The tribe names often refer to their ancestors. The tribe, or in Maori iwi, is divided in family groups, whanau. The whanau can be divided into marae. Marae is the area in front of the meeting houses of the Maori. Mountains and rivers and other landmarks were used as borders between the different iwi’s, tribes.

The traditional Maori Society is hierarchical. The higher positions were commonly occupied by male who inherited it. Arike, supreme chief, is the head of an iwi, tribe. Head of the sub tribes, hapu, were rangatira. Taurekareka, slaves, were on the lowest part of the hierarchical ladder. They became slaves as soon as they were taken from the enemy.

Religion

The roots of the Maori’s their religion are the same as other Polynesian Cultures. It is a comprehensive religion with many gods representing earth, fire, sky etc. Priests, tohunga, communicated with the gods. They knew the rituals, for example how to offer. Priests had other important roles in the Society: for example maintaining History and Culture.

Spirituality

A vital part of the Maori Society was Tapu. These are rules about sacredness and prohibition. Mana is a second vital part of the traditional Maori Culture. Mana is spiritual power. This power could belong to chiefs. They could inherited it of obtain it by their personal deeds. Once a chief had mana this would spread around their tribe. Mana could also be lost.

Written Language

The traditional Maori Culture did not have a written language. Therefore memorizing stories, myth, traditions, rituals etc. was very important. This made the ties with their ancestors even stronger; Maori’s saw themselves as a piece in the chain, of experience and knowledge of all their ancestors together. Also because of the absence of a written language the Maori have a rich dance, song and wood carve Culture.

Moko

A striking characteristic of the Maori Culture is the moko, this is a full face tattoo. This tattoo is worn by men. Women are restricted to tattoos on the chin, upper lip and nostrils only. This moko shows the status of the person. In the 20th century this tradition lost its popularity but in the new millennium it is gaining popularity again.

Maori’s in Today’s Society

In the 1950’s there was a great shift of Maori’s moving from their tribal villages into the urban areas of New Zealand. The Maori’s got integrated in the Society and many mixed marriages took place. The result is only very few full blood Maori’s remained; the Maori’s represent 15% of New Zealand’s population. Additional information about the development of the Maori population can be found under category “About New Zealand” section “Society”. Since recent years Maori Culture experiences an increase in popularity.

External Resources

For additional information about the Maori Culture we refer to the following websites: http://www.maori.org.nz; http://www.maoriart.org.nz.