Learning About Moari Culture

We didn't have to wait long after coming to New Zealand to start learning about Maori culture, as the North Island is the better of the two for getting a feel for NZ's longest tenured inhabitants.  We had to wait even less time to begin getting an idea of the differences between Maori/New Zealander and Aboriginal/Australian relations.

We overheard an Australian on our Bay of Islands cruise telling a Kiwi about how wonderfully integrated the Maori people seemed to be compared to "the Aboriginals who are so separated from and disinterested in Australian society."  We were surprised during our time there to see how disenfranchised the Aboriginals seemed to be in Australia, and the attitude of the Bay of Islands Australian summed up other conversations and experiences we had with other Aussies on the subject: "The Aboriginals just don't want to belong."  Um, can you blame them? 

The Maori experience has been quite a bit different than the Aboriginal experience, as they have, in general, faced less racism, violence, and fear from incoming settlers than the Aboriginals in Australia.  Even today, many Australians seem perfectly happy to hang popular Aboriginal art in their homes, while still keeping a physical and social distance.  Now, this is not the vibe we got from EVERY Australian, but the overall lack of understanding (ignorance) of Aboriginal culture by many Australians caught us off guard.  We feel that the negative and fearful attitudes of many white Australians likely has more to do with the distance between the two groups of people than the attitude of Aboriginal people.  Our observation was that many Aboriginal people and tribes we encountered and learned about do hold a disinterest in conforming to a Western lifestyle, but only in the sense that they hold a great interest in keeping their culture and traditions as strong and healthy as possible.

The Australian government has only recently made attempts to educate white Australia (and tourists) about Aboriginal culture - pouring money into cultural centers and changing the names of many famous areas and sights around the country back to their original ones (i.e. Ayer's Rock to Uluru).  New Zealand's government, on the other hand,  has been historically more proactive at connecting their culture with Maori culture.  In general, Maori culture seems to be very well understood and accepted by white New Zealanders.  The friendly, interwoven nature of the two groups and their cultures comes, we believe, from both sides genuinely wanting to share the land with each other.  Sadly, we did not get that same sense from white Australians we encountered.

Just as learning about Aboriginal culture and history was an invaluable aspect of our time in Australia, we found that learning about Maori culture and history, and especially interacting with Maori people, added another, indispensable, layer to our time in New Zealand.  A few of the highlights of what we learned:

Maori daily life, spiritual beliefs, and culture has historically had a lot in common with other Polynesian cultures, and still does.  The traditional singing and dancing we encountered reminded us a lot of those we have seen in Hawaii.  The Hangi we went to in Rotorua ended up being very similar to a performance we saw at the wonderful Te Papa museum in Wellington.  Maori are maybe best known around the world for a frightening wide-eyed-tongue-waggling move, and we saw some great tongue action at both performances.  We found this move even more intimidating after learning that the gesture is intended to show an enemy or foreigner that, after defeated, they will be devoured.  The Maori believe in mana, which is a person's life force -their energy and strength.  Eating another after combat ensures that you gain their mana, and grow stronger yourself.

One traditional dance is the Haka, which is internationally famous thanks to the All Blacks, who perform the traditional battle challenge before each match.  The Haka that the All Blacks perform is just one version of what is also known as a Ka Mate, and we saw several different versions across the country.

The Te Papa museum was also the best place we found to view traditional Maori carving, though the Rotorua museum also had some amazing carvings.  The Maori carving style is distinctive and impressive, as they originally made them using only stone and bone tools.  These carvings are beautifully intricate and detailed, with geometric designs and different types of imagery running up, down, and all throughout every piece from small masks to huge structural facades and totems.

Traditional Maori tattooing, called Ta Moko is the skin-art version of Maori wood carving.  Actually, it is more like carving than tattooing, the way we think of it.  Not practiced so much any more, traditional Ta Moko is applied using a whale bone "needle," natural ink, and a hammer.  The Maori might be best known for their detailed facial tattoos, which are just a part of the Ta Moko tradition.  Ta Moko indicate mana, family history, and social standing.  Ta Moko on the face carry special importance.

Ta Moko, and underlying racial tensions, were in the news just before we left NZ. A Maori man had been removed and banned from a bar with a policy against facial tattoos.  The man claimed that the bar had kicked him out even after he had tried to explain that his facial markings were Ta Moko, not just a tattoo.  Despite the importance of his Ta Moko to him, the bar still kicked him out.  Only after the media blew the story up and the bars actions came off as racist and ignorant, did the bar owner apologize and invite the gentleman back.  This incident reminded us that New Zealand, like so many other nations where European settlement changed the lay of the land (America included), also struggles with prejudice and issues of racism.