Abiding Romance

In the 2013 census, there were approximately 600,000 people in New Zealand identifying as Maori, making up roughly 15% of the population. They are the second largest ethnic group in New Zealand, after European New Zealanders. In addition, more than 120,000 Maori people live in Australia. The Maori language is still spoken by about a fifth of the Maori people. Many New Zealanders regularly use Maori words and expressions. Maori are active in all parts of  New Zealand society and culture. Disproportionate numbers of Maori face significant economic and social obstacles.

In the Maori language, the word Maori means natural, normal, and native. In legends and oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary human beings from deities and spirits. It also denoted salt water from fresh water. Early visitors from Europe to New Zealand generally referred to the indigenous people as New Zealanders or natives. The Maoris used the word Maori to describe themselves in a pan-tribal sense. The Maori call themselves "people of the Land." This term refers to the Maori in their relation to New Zealand. The governing body for the Maori is known as the Ministry of Maori Development.

The most current reliable evidence strongly suggests that initial settlement of New Zealand occurred around 1280 AD at the end of the Medieval Warm Period. Previous dating of a Polynesian Rat Bone shows that it may have been earlier. The Maori came from East Polynesia. DNA evidence suggests their ancestors are from Taiwanese Aboriginals. These aboriginals are indigenous people of Taiwan. These ethnic groups are related: Philippines, Malaysia, Madagascar, and Oceania.

The earliest period of Maori settlement is known as the archaic, moa hunter, and colonization period. The eastern Polynesian ancestors of the Maori arrived in a forested land with abundant birdlife, including several now extinct moa species. Other species include swan, goose, and Haast Eagles, which preyed upon the Moa. Marine mammals, especially seals, thronged the coasts, with evidence of coastal colonies much further north than they exist today. At the Waitaki River mouth, huge numbers of moa bones were found. Further south at the mouth of the Shag river, even more, were found as evidence of human hunting. The birds of New Zealand evolved into an avifauna that included a large number of endemic species.

Archaeology has shown that the Otago region was the node of Maori cultural development during this time, and the majority of archaic settlements were on or within six miles of the coast. It was common for the people to establish small temporary camps far inland for seasonal hunting. Settlements ranged in size from forty people to four hundred people. There were around forty buildings. Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It is an area of approximately 12,000 square miles, making it the country's third largest local government region. Its population was 215,100 in June 2015 census. Pallister Bay is at the southern end of the North Island of New Zealand, to the southeast of Wellington. It runs forty kilometers along the Cook Strait coast from Turakirae Head.

The best known and most extensively studied Archaic site is at Wairau Bar in the South Island. The site is similar to Eastern Polynesian nucleated villages. Radiocarbon dating shows it was occupied from about 1288 to 1300. Due to tectonic forces, some of the Wairau Bar sites is now underwater. Work on the Wairau Bar skeletons in 2010 showed that life expectancy was very short, the oldest skeleton being 39 and most people dying in their 20s. Most of the adults showed signs of dietary or infection stress. Anemia and arthritis were common. Infections such as tuberculosis may have been present, as the symptoms were present in several skeletons. On average the adults were taller than other South Pacific people, at 175 cm for males and 161 cm for females.

The Archaic period is remarkable for the lack of weapons and fortifications so typical of the later classic Maori, and for its distinctive reel necklaces. From this period onward, some 32 species of birds became extinct, either through over-predation by humans and rat and the dog that they introduced. Repeated burning of the grassland also changed the habitat, as well as climate cooling which appears to have occurred from about 1400 to 1450. The early Maori enjoyed a rich, varied diet of birds, fish, seals, and shellfish. Moa were also an important source of meat. According to Professor Allan Cooper, the people slaughtered to extinction most of the various lost species within 100 years.

Work by Helen Leach shows that Maori were using about 36 different food plants, although many required detoxification and long periods of cooking. Daniel Sutton's research on early Maori fertility found that first pregnancies occurred at about 20 years and the mean number of births was low compared with other neolithic societies. The low number of births may have been due to the very low average life expectancy of 31 to 32 years. Analysis of skeletons at Wairau Bar showed signs of a hard life, with many having had broken bones that had healed. This suggests that the people ate a balanced diet and enjoyed a supportive community that had the resources to support severely injured family members.

The cooling of the climate, confirmed by a detailed tree ring study near Hokitika, shows a significant, sudden and long-lasting cooler period from 1500. This coincided with a series of massive earthquakes in the South Island Alpine fault, a major earthquake in 1460 in the Wellington area, tsunamis that destroyed many coastal settlements, and the extinction of the moa and other food species. These were likely factors that led to sweeping changes in the Maori culture, which developed into the most well-known classic period that was in place at the time of European contact.