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newzealand.com
New Zealand has a rich and fascinating history, reflecting both our Maori and European heritage.
Amazing Maori historic sites and taonga (treasures), some dating back almost a thousand years, are a contrast to many beautiful colonial buildings. A walk around any New Zealand city today shows what a culturally diverse and fascinating country we have become.
An 1840 treaty between Maori and the British Crown is New Zealand’s founding document. Today, the Treaty of Waitangi has a major impact on all New Zealanders.
Bravely voyaging across the Pacific from their ancestral homeland hundreds of years ago, Maori made New Zealand their home, becoming the tangata whenua — people of the land.
Though a Dutchman was the first European to sight the land, it was the British who colonised New Zealand, leaving an indelible mark on the country and its people.
The Maui legend embodies the South Pacific idea of a hero, while not a god he was gifted, clever and walked between the realms of gods and men. Polynesian and Maori mythology include numerous legends of Maui fishing up new land, the North Island of New Zealand was the largest.
By Kate Malcolm