Difference Between the Maori People and the Kiwi's Culture of New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the South Western Pacific Ocean and it is located east of Australia. The country is small, similar in size with Great Britain or Japan, and their population is of four million people (wikipedia.org). According to australiareiser.no, New Zealand is known for being a clean country with a lot of green nature, high mountains, waterfalls, rivers and fjords. New Zealand can be compared to Norway. It has a lot of similarities, but what separates them, are New Zealand’s bamboos, palm trees, long white beaches, spouting geysers and active volcanoes.

For my assignment, I have chosen to research the difference between the Maori people- and the kiwi’s culture. For this, the history of these two people are relevant.

The Maori´s are Polynesian people who first settled in New Zealand. They developed their own distinct culture long before the European colonies arrived in late 1800´s. As claimed by storenorskeleksikon.no (snl.no), they probably reached New Zealand in three waves around year 950, 1150 and 1350. The last immigration is the most renowned because they travelled in canoes, where they brought their domestic animals and growing plants.

In the beginning of the 19th century, British merchants and colonists settled among the Maoris, who gave the new settlers the nickname “Kiwis”. New Zealand’s military were the first people who were widely known as Kiwis. After a while, it became common usage in all war theatres for all of their servicemen. The name is now an international nickname for New Zealanders, and it came from the unique, flightless bird “Kiwi” which is the national symbol of the country. (Wikipedia.org)

As earlier mentioned, The Maoris developed their own culture and society. The ...

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...y are rich in symbolism. Traditionally the patterns are inspired by the natural environment

The Kiwis does not have a special and exciting culture like the Maori people. As claimed by Kwintessential.co.uk, they are known and loved all over the world for their relaxed attitude and laidback lifestyle. Generally, they enjoy extending hospitality, they are very friendly and outgoing, and sometimes they can be a bit reserved, but initially yet polite. Many of them are very interested in rugby and racing.

Even though The Maori culture – art, dances and songs are important for them, they live a routinely life, where they live in houses, buy food on the store instead of fishing and hunting for it, goes to school, and everything else like the Kiwis. We can compare the kiwi’s culture to our own culture in Norway, and the Maoris culture to the Sami people’s culture.