What are the original people of new zealand called?

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Mikey

Maori

MÄori is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and their language. The word mÄori means "normal" or "ordinary" in the MÄori language. In legends and other oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings from deities and spirits. "MÄori" has cognates in some other Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian in which the word maoli means native, indigenous, real, or actual. It is also the name of the people and language of the Cook Islands,

surfswed

They are called Maori, and they are polynesian I think.

Amy

The New Zealand natives, or Maoris, as they call themselves, are generally acknowledged to be intellectually and physically the finest aboriginal race in the South Sea Islands. Their magnificent courage, their high intelligence, their splendid physique and manly bearing, the stirring part they have played in the history of the country, the very ferocity of their long-relinquished habits, have all combined to invest them with a more than ordinary degree of interest and curiosity. Of their origin it can only be said, broadly, that they belong to the Polynesian raceâ€”ethnologists have tried to trace a likeness to the Red Indians of North Americaâ€”and according to tradition they came to New Zealand about twenty-one generations ago (i.e., about five hundred and twenty-five years) from Hawaiki, an island of the Pacific not identified with any certainty. After being robbed and despoiled by the early white civilization and by trader-missionaries, tardy justice has at length been done to the native race. To-day the Maoris have four members in the house of representatives and two in the legislative council, all men of high lineage and natural orators. Until recent years it was supposed that the Maoris were dying out, but later statistics show the contrary. The official figures show that the Maori population fell from 41,93 in 1891 to 39,854 in 1896, increased to 43,143 in 1901, and further to 47,731 in 1906 (last census year).

answer annie

maori
1. A member of a people of New Zealand, of Polynesian-Melanesian descent.
2. The Austronesian language of the Maori.

chikkylast

The Moriori

ladymarmalade_00

The Morioris were there before the Maoris arrived. What happened to them, one wonders?

stevekc43

Dweebs

Loka

The real answer is we dont really know. Its generally accepted that the Maori were the original but they only arrived in the 1200s. There is a theory that Moriori were here before that and another theory that suggests that Europeans had also settled here before that, with archaeological and genetic finds that 'prove' it.

angelic_beauty

maori

Ken W

They are called the Maori and are of Polynesian ancestry.

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