Essay about NewZealand and Australia
society made up of nobility, priestly and slave classes. The Maori believed in deities and
personifications, such as Tane-mahuta, the lord of the forest, Tawhirimatea and
Tangaroa, the Polynesian ocean god. Their villages were fortified with an open space in
the centre were the whare hui or the meeting house was located.
Maori history has never been written down, instead it was preserved in songs and chants,
some of which like war chant or haka and challenge or wero, are still used today.
The first European explorers arrived to New Zealand in the mid 1600s but in general it is
said that Aotearoa was discovered by Captain James Cook. He arrived there in 1769 and
grabbed the land for the British crown. From this came the flow of foreigners to New
Zealand, first contacts with the Maori people were full of misunderstanding and conflicts.
In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maori and the British, with what
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