Table of Contents
- 1 What cultural groups make up the population of New Zealand?
- 2 When did the Māori arrive in New Zealand?
- 3 How many Maori languages are in New Zealand?
- 4 Who were in NZ before the Māori?
- 5 Who was in NZ before the Māori?
- 6 What is the ethnic makeup of New Zealand?
- 7 Who are the Maori people of New Zealand?
What cultural groups make up the population of New Zealand?
As at the 2018 census, the majority of New Zealand’s population is of European descent (70 percent), with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority (16.5 percent), followed by Asians (15.3 percent), and non-Māori Pacific Islanders (9.0 percent).
Are Māori indigenous to New Zealand?
Māori are the tangata whenua, the indigenous people, of New Zealand. They came here more than 1000 years ago from their mythical Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki. Today, one in seven New Zealanders identify as Māori. Their history, language and traditions are central to New Zealand’s identity.
When did the Māori arrive in New Zealand?
Māori settlement The first settlers probably arrived from Polynesia between 1200 and 1300 AD. They discovered New Zealand as they explored the Pacific, navigating by the ocean currents, winds and stars. Some tribal traditions say the first Polynesian navigator to discover New Zealand was Kupe.
What is the native language of New Zealand?
Māori
EnglishNew Zealand Sign Language
New Zealand/Official languages
How many Maori languages are in New Zealand?
As of 2015, 55\% of Māori adults reported some knowledge of the language; of these, 64\% use Māori at home and around 50,000 people can speak the language “very well” or “well”. The Māori language did not have an indigenous writing system….Māori language.
| Māori | |
|---|---|
| Region | Polynesia |
| Ethnicity | Māori people |
Is New Zealand ethnically diverse?
A diverse country New Zealand’s 5 million inhabitants are made up of very diverse ethnicities. The majority of us ‘Kiwis’ are of European descent (74\%), with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority (14.9\%), followed by Asians (11.8\%) and non-Māori Pacific Islanders (7.4 \%).
Who were in NZ before the Māori?
Before that time and until the 1920s, however, a small group of prominent anthropologists proposed that the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands represented a pre-Māori group of people from Melanesia, who once lived across all of New Zealand and were replaced by the Māori .
Was New Zealand inhabited before the Māori?
The accepted wisdom was that the Polynesian settlers of the Chatham Islands, who arrived hundreds of years before Māori, were wiped out by invading Māori tribes, who killed and enslaved their population after landing on the islands in 1835.
Who was in NZ before the Māori?
Māori were the first to arrive in New Zealand, journeying in canoes from Hawaiki about 1,000 years ago. A Dutchman, Abel Tasman, was the first European to sight the country but it was the British who made New Zealand part of their empire.
Who inhabited New Zealand before the Māori?
Since the early 1900s the theory that Polynesians (who became the Māori) were the first ethnic group to settle in New Zealand (first proposed by Captain James Cook) has been dominant among archaeologists and anthropologists.
What is the ethnic makeup of New Zealand?
The majority of the New Zealand population is of European origin. According to the 2013 Census, the main ethnic communities include the Māori indigenous people at 598,605 (14.9 per cent) and Pacific Islanders at 295,941 (7.4 per cent).
What are the challenges facing New Zealand’s minority groups?
There is also persistent discrimination against New Zealand’s other minority groups, including Pacific peoples and migrant Asian communities. While Pacific communities are making progress in some areas, they continue to face social, health, education and economic problems, with over 40 per cent of Pacific children living in poverty.
Who are the Maori people of New Zealand?
Māori were the first inhabitants of New Zealand or Aotearoa, meaning ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’. Nevertheless, the legacy of the country’s colonization and the large-scale dispossession of their land by settlers continues to be felt to this day.
Where do New Zealand’s migrants come from?
Most new migrants to New Zealand come from Britain, Ireland South Africa, the USA, and growing numbers of skilled Asian professionals. Auckland is the most ethnically diverse region in New Zealand with just under 60\% identifying as Europeans, 23\% as Asian, almost 11\% as Māori and just under 15\% as Pacific Islanders.