Maori Culture

On 6 February 1840, representatives of the British Crown met with prominent Māori chiefs from the northern regions of the North Island, to sign the Treaty of Waitangi.

The legend of Wairaka, the ancestor of the Mataatua people and how the town of Whakatane got its name.

In the final days of May each year, a cluster of tiny stars intermittently twinkles as it rises on the north east horizon. To astronomers this constellation is known as Pleiades but to the Māori people of New Zealand, it is Matariki - a celestial signal of an ending and a beginning.

The Māori story of creation.

Mahi raranga, or the art of weaving, was a fundamental part of the pre-European Maori life and economy. For everyday domestic use kete (baskets) were created to carry and gather kai (food) and whariki (mats) were created to cover dirt floors and provide seating.

Kapahaka is the term used to describe a group of people who perform traditional Maori performing arts. The items the group perform include, patere – chant, poi – ball dance usually performed by women, waiata a ringa – action song and haka taparahi – posture dance of defiance. The language, movements and the way these particular items are performed are specific to their iwi (tribe) or hapu (sub-tribe).

Before the coming of the European, the vast timbered lands of the Whirinaki rainforest served as a Garden of Eden to the mountain iwi (tribes) of Te Urewera region of the central North Island of Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Orakei-Korako geyserland is home to the greatest number of active geysers of any geothermal field in New Zealand ...

A number of firsts have been created in Aotearoa New Zealand, with the launch of a national consortium of Maori operators ...

The earliest name for Wellington, from Maori legend, is Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui. In Maori it means 'the head of Maui's fish.' Caught and pulled to the surface by Polynesian navigator Maui, the fish became the North Island.