Maori culture

The Maori people are the first inhabitants od New Zealand. They came with travel canoes from Hawaiki, the home of their ancestors, over 1,000 years ago. Today, Maoris are 14 % of the New Zealand population and their culture and language have an important influence on the lifes of the "new" New Zealand people.

The Maoris have a rich and varied culture: They practise traditional arts like carving (form something from wood with a knife), weaving (with wool etc.), "Kapa Haka" (a kind of group portrayal), "Whaihkorero" (art of speech) or "Moko" (tatooing) and new arts like dance, film, tv, theatre, poetry and hiphop.

How said, the Maoris have an important influence on the modern life: Most place names are in the Maori language and seem to be senseless at first, lots of tourists visit the Maoris and buy things from them and the Maori language is an official language of New Zealand which isn't only, but also spoken in radio and TV. Apart from this the most trees and a lot of plants and animals have Maori names in the New Zealand English.

A long time ago, the Maoris have been cannibals: Sometimes they had enemies and if they were defeated, it was possible that the head of him was detached and showed in the village and the "rest" was cooked and eaten. But in the 19th century, a lot of Maoris went over to the Christianity and gave up this cult.
Today, it's possible that they keep something from their died relatives like "Maui", a Moari warrior who carved a fish hook from the jaw bone of his grand-mother*.

What we can actually say, is that the Maori people have a big and very interesting culture. They have been the first people in New Zealand. And although the temptations of the modern world are suspicious and they even earn money by showing or "selling" parts of their life how I would say and they have normal clothes or TV, they keep their culture and their traditions as the first human inhabitants of New Zealand.


*(source: http://www.spiegel.de/reise/fernweh/0,1518,261031,00.html)
pictures from:

http://www.sheimagazine.com/

(Young woman with face tattoo)

http://www.new-zealand-pictures.co.uk/

(family house of Maori people)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28819117@N08/2718395376/

(Maori with horse and dog at a lake)

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/10/moari-time-in-new-zealand/

(Maori show with tourists in the background)

http://www.templestudy.com/

(Maori girl and old man which greet each other)