Maori Overview

Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Although they are described as one large group of people, they are a combination of many different tribes and units. Within these tribes, there are variations of dialects, habits, and rituals. Before contact with the Europeans, the people did not call themselves Maori. This was an adoption from their language, meaning "normal." They used this word to distinguish themselves from the Europeans. According to the 1996 census, Maori …

…Cleve Barlow, Charles Higham, Ihimaera Witi, and Andrew Sharp. The population of the Maori suffered soon after introduction to the English. They had succumbed to the evils of alcohol along with the introduction of the musket. Furthermore, they had little or no resistance to small pox, influenza, typhoid, etc. The population was reduced from 120,000 to 42,000 in about a century. Today, health and education revitalizations are at the top of the list for the 21st century.