According to Maori tradition, the demi-god Maui carved a magical fishhook from an ancestor’s jawbone. He and his brothers took their huge waka (canoe) and tried their luck at fishing with the new hook. Maui soon caught something huge! With his brothers’ help, he reeled it to the surface, and they were shocked to find it was not a fish, but a piece of land. This is how the North Island of New Zealand came to be. Its Maori name is Te Ika-a-Maui, the fish of Maui. The canoe is the South Island, and it is sometimes called Te Waka-a-Maui (although it is most commonly known as Te Waipounamu, the Waters of Greenstone).

And so this place was born, called Aotearoa in Maori, or New Zealand by its European colonists.

The islands of Aotearoa-New Zealand were among the last to be inhabited by humans, with the best estimate being around 1280 CE, with the famed Polynesian explorer Kupe being the first to discover the area, according to the Maori. Ancestors of the Maori are said to have arrived from the mythical land of Hawaiki, although modern geneticists believe that in the case of the Maori, the most likely migration path was from French Polynesia. Initial populations were small, with settlements being on or very near the coasts.

The early Maori peoples subsisted on produce brought with them and introduced here (like the taro and yam) and local fish and bird species. The moa, a huge flightless bird about twelve feet tall, was hunted to extinction within a century or so. (The largest flying bird on the islands, Haast’s eagle, also went extinct after its primary food source – young moa – disappeared.)

By 1500 or so, the Maori were organized into larger tribes, or iwi. Series of wars were fought between the iwi, and the islands – and their settlements – were fortified with wooden walls, trenches, and other defenses. It is during this period, the “Classical” Maori period before European settlement in 1769, that the famed Maori warrior culture blossomed, that cannibalism was practiced, and that the huge sailing waka (canoes) and meeting houses gained intricately carved wooden decorations.

For those interested in classical Maori culture, a visit to Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand in Wellington, is a must. Te Papa Tongarewa literally translates to Container of Treasures, and so this place, established in 1992 as a merger of the Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery, is: a building full of cultural treasures. The current building opened in 1998, and while it includes exhibits on other aspects of modern and historic New Zealand, the galleries of Maori art and artifacts are probably the most impressive.

Upon arriving on the Maori floor, the eye is drawn – naturally – to a huge display of waka. The largest is close to 60 feet long! These canoes, which mainly date to the 19th century, are each constructed from a single tree (although the top section that is most intricate in design is formed separately and then attached) and are brightly painted. But it is the wood carving that catches the eye, and invites visitors to walk slowly down the length of each waka, appreciating it from all angles.

Carvings range from geometric patterns – with a significant use of waves and spirals rather than the stars and squares of Moorish designs, for instance – to figures representing spirits, warriors, or even gods. Wood is interspersed with local abalone (paua) shell, adding iridescence for eyes on many of the faces.

It is this carving that truly sets Maori canoes apart from those of other Polynesian cultures, and although Te Papa does dedicate space to other modern Polynesian societies with presences here in Aotearoa-New Zealand, all but one canoe I see are Maori in design.

Artifacts on display at Te Papa come from a variety of the country’s modern iwi, a truly progressive and cooperative take on historic relationships that were often adversarial. Even the Moriori, who diverged from the Maori around the year 1500 when they left for the Chatham Islands, are represented. In the 1830s, Maori invaded the Chatham Islands, and the pacifist Moriori were largely wiped out or enslaved, with more than 95% of an already tiny population being killed or displaced. Today, the Moriori have been recognized as an official indigenous people of New Zealand, and the population, down to just 101 in 1862, has climbed to approximately 1000 today. (This is still far less than the estimated 2500 on the islands before the invasion.)

Maori villages were mostly of straw huts. But some communal buildings were built of wood, and as with the waka, those more permanent structures were intricately carved. A meeting house called a marae was the focal point of Maori life, and while Te Papa has a full historic marae that has been relocated here, visitors are asked not to take photos. Instead, a modern take on the marae, one again built out of collaboration between modern day iwi, has been constructed here, providing a communal space to all of Aotearoa-New Zealand’s peoples and visitors.

One building that can be visited is called Te Takinga. This is a storehouse called a pataka, donated by one of the tribes from Rotorua, Ngati Pikiao. Such a storehouse was used by a tribe to house its treasures (food, weapons, tools, and other artifacts), keeping them safely above ground that could often flood.

The last portion of Te Papa’s Maori exhibition is dedicated to the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which marked the beginning of Aotearoa-New Zealand as a bicultural nation, shared between its local and colonial inhabitants. It should be noted – and the exhibit does – that the aspirations of the treaty were not lived up to for more than a century, with the British Crown officially apologizing (although financial reparations have been more limited) in 1995, with Queen Elizabeth II doing so in person. (Click here to read more about the Treaty of Waitangi.)

Te Papa is an extensive museum, one worthy of its title as the Museum of New Zealand, and one whose collections have contributed not only this article, but to two upcoming ones as well (on Wellington’s European history and on ANZAC Day and the Gallipoli campaign in World War One). Visitors can easily spend several hours on an exploration, making its admission fee well worthwhile.

And even if one only comes for a short visit, the ability to see the depth of classical Maori culture is very much worth the stop. That culture, and the corresponding Maori history of Aotearoa-New Zealand, is rich, it is beautiful, and it lives on today.

Thank you to Te Papa for hosting my visit. I loved my time!

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