Culture of Aotearoa

Nau mai, haere mai...! Welcome to Aotearoa New Zealand. The name Aotearoa translates to "Long White Cloud", but is more commonly referred to as, the “Land of the Long White Cloud.” Māori are the indigenous people of the land and maintain strong historical, genealogical and traditional ties with their Polynesian cousins in the more tropical islands of the Pacific.

The Polynesian Cultural Center provides a unique place where students are provided with the opportunity to learn, practice and share aspects of their unique Māori cultural heritage while obtaining a university degree.

A simple Māori greeting is “Kia Ora” or “hello”.

Aotearoa is located approximately 4,600 miles southwest of Hawai'i. The islands form the southwestern apex of the Polynesian Triangle and is the only part of Polynesia to experience four seasons. 

Aotearoa consists of an estimated 600 islands (World Atlas, 2024). The two larger islands, North and South, are the main population centers. The largest of the smaller islands is located off the very southern boundary of the country (Te Ara-the Encyclopedia of New Zealand). Within a two-day drive, one can see glaciers, fiords, snow-capped mountains, vast plains and hills, sub-tropical forests, a volcanic plateau and white, sandy beaches. 

The spectacular scenery of both major islands has recently been featured in the Hollywood movies Wolverine, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Hobbit Trilogy, A Wrinkle in Time and more. The land mass totals approximately 270,000 sq. Km.-- about the size of Japan or the United Kingdom (World Atlas, 2024).

Over 5.2 million people live in Aotearoa, about 19.6% (STATS NZ, 2024) are of Māori descent - making them the largest group of Polynesians today. Another 8.9% of the population (2018 Census) have immigrated there from various other Pacific Islands, especially Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau Islands. Auckland is generally considered the largest Polynesian city in the world.

Māui - There are three original names for the country given by the great hero Māui, who, according to legend, ‘fished up’ the islands from the sea. The names are: “Te Ika-a-Māui or the Fish of Māui”, “Te Waka-a-Māui or the Canoe of Māui”, and “Te Punga-a-Māui or the Anchor-stone of Māui” (Map. 2024). 

Kupe & Ngahue - In the 10th century, the voyagers Kupe and Ngahue, knowing the Māui legends, added the name, “Te Wai Pounamu or The Greenstone Waters”, following the discovery of Pounamu or Nephrite Jade. The name Aotearoa is associated with the voyage of Kupe (Best, 1924, 22). His wife, Hine-te-aparangi, was the first to sight cloud formations above the land (Te Ara-the Encyclopedia of New Zealand).

Dutch & English Seafarers - There were three names associated with the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman: “Staten Landt” or “Land of Nations”, “Nova Zeelandia” and “Nieuw Zeeland” (Te Ara-the Encyclopedia of New Zealand). The name, New Zealand, was “already well established” by the time of the English Captain James Cook (NZ Geographic-Issue 6, 1990). It wasn’t until 2013 that alternative Māori and English names gained official recognition. Those names are the North Island or “Te Ika-a-Maui” and the South Island or “Te Waipounamu” (Williamson, 2013). A petition to use Aotearoa in the official name for New Zealand was presented to Parliament in 2019 (Parliamentary Debates, 2018).

New Zealand has three official languages: English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language (Te Kāhui Tika Tangata: Human Rights Commission). The Māori language is similar to Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, and other island languages due to the origins of the people and their migrations. In 1982, Māori pre-schools or Kōhanga Reo (language nests) were introduced to reinforce the teaching of the Māori language to children. These unique pre-schools have been a very successful model for Native Hawaiians, various Indigenous Tribes and First Nations People in Canada and the United States. Today, revitalization efforts continue and are focused on promoting, reinforcing and normalizing the use of the Māori language throughout the country.

MARAE

Te Arohanui o Te Iwi Māori Marae - The ‘marae’ is the open area or courtyard in front of the ancestral meeting house Hawaikiroa at the Polynesian Cultural Center and includes the grounds and surrounding buildings. This marae is named after the founding performing arts group ‘Te Arohanui Māori Company’. The group arrived in Hawai’i during the summer of 1963 to assist in the final preparations for the opening the Polynesian Cultural Center in October of that year. ‘Te Arohanui o Te Iwi Māori’ translates as the “Great Love of the Māori People”. The marae is a unique place where many cultural traditions and customs continue to be practiced.

HAWAIKIROA

This Whare Tūpuna or ancestral meeting house is named after an ancient mariner who arrived in the islands of Hawai’i. According to legend, he named the islands after himself and his family, over 2,000 years ago (Fornander, Vol. VI, 278-281). Hawaikiroa is one of only six such houses located outside of Aotearoa New Zealand. Under the direction of the master carver, Hone Te Kauru Taiapa (MBE), carving began in the early 1960s and was completed in the summer of 1963. The layout of this house is patterned after another meeting house in Nuhaka, Aotearoa. Hawaikiroa was shipped piece-by-piece to the Polynesian Cultural in Hawai'i and assembled on site.

The architecture and design elements of a Māori meeting house are filled with symbolism. The house itself represents the physical anatomy of a human body, the actual ancestor, who the building is named after. The apex of the building has two figures, the lower one, holding a paddle is Hawaikiroa, the upper one, his first-born son. The facing boards on the house gable represent his outstretched arms and hands extended and reaching towards the ground. The inside ridgepole of the house represents his spine or backbone and the painted rafters his rib cage.

KŌWHAIWHAI (Decorative Rafter Panels)

The kōwhaiwhai or painted scroll ornamentation on the rafters or rara (ribs) symbolize aspects of the natural world (K. Wilson, Graduate Carver, New Zealand Māroi Arts & Crafts Institute [NZMACI]), as well as the many genealogical descent lines from the common ancestor Hawaikiroa.

POUPOU

‘Poupou’ (carved wall figures) form the framework of the house. They are stylized carved representations of some of the more significant descendants of this common ancestor, Hawaikiroa. Each figure depicts a specific ancestor. The eyes of each carving are ‘pāua’ or abalone shell. The stories, histories, and genealogies of these ancestors continue to be preserved in the carvings themselves, and in the present generation through oral histories, music, both ancient and contemporary and, even in the naming of their descendants. 

KUPE

Kupe is the second of the six houses outside of the island. Kupe currently houses the Toi Whakairo (The Art of Carving) Exhibit. On display are unique examples of the six different mediums (stone, teeth, shell, bone, wood and skin) that have been used by Māori carvers throughout history.

KIA NGĀWARI 

Kia Ngāwari houses the Tātai Arorangi (Māori Astronomy) exhibit. This exhibit highlights the significance of the well-known star cluster ‘MATARIKI’ or the PLEIADES also known as the “Seven Sisters”. Māori astronomical knowledge is becoming normalized in Aotearoa New Zealand with a national holiday being celebrated in June or July. The phrase “Mānawatia a Matariki” (Celebrate Matariki)...is similar to saying Happy New Year...!

TĪTĪ-TŌREA (Hand-eye coordination stick game)

In pre-European times, this was a typical military game used to develop and maintain effective eye-hand coordination skills, essential in hand-to-hand combat, from a very young age. The game requires an even number of players who simultaneously toss sticks back and forth to each other in various patterns and in rhythm to music or chant. The object of the game is to catch the sticks without dropping any of them. Today it is a fun, but precise, recreational activity.

POI POROTITI (Poi Twirling)

The ‘poi’ is defined as a lightweight ball attached to a plaited cord of various lengths. ‘Poi’ is swung or twirled rhythmically and in unison to sung accompaniment. Traditionally the ‘poi’ was made of raupō (bull rush or cat’s tail) leaves attached to a flax rope. It can also be struck with the hand or other body parts to create a percussive rhythm. ‘Poi’ can be used to imitate the sounds, actions and rhythms of nature, thus enhancing storytelling. Modern-day ‘poi’ is made from a variety of materials including foam, cotton batting, wool, and plastic coverings, with the rope-like handle braided from yarn or cord.

MĀRA

Vegetables in the ‘māra’ (gardens) around the marae include the kūmara or sweet potato and taro. The sweet potato was a staple food. A great deal of ritual and ceremony surrounding both the planting and harvesting is still practiced today. 

WAKA TAUA (War Canoe)

This waka taua is crafted from two types of native timber, Kauri and Tōtara. The oral and recorded histories provided by members of the Witehira, Wīhongi, Davis, and Tahere families provide a rich history for this unique canoe (Family Search). According to family records, the Kauri tree was felled under the direction of Toki Kingi Pangari in the Puketi Forest, Northland on the 7th of October 1948. The canoe was originally intended to be used in the welcoming ceremony of King George Vl of England in the Spring of 1949.

The tree was ‘roughed out’ in the bush and transported to the Kohewhata Marae, outside of Kaikohe, Northland, New Zealand. The King’s scheduled visit was cancelled due to his failing health, and the hull was left to rest unfinished in the paddock next to Mangakāhia Road. The families agreed that the canoe should be completed and gifted to the Polynesian Villages Project which opened in 1963 as the Polynesian Cultural Center in Lā’ie, Hawai'i.

The canoe was named Te Ika-roa-a-Māui, or "Māui's Long Fish." The hull of the canoe is close to 60 feet long. It weighs nearly 2.5 tons with the stern and prow pieces, and the top boards attached to the hull. Elsdon Best was an eyewitness observer of these canoes who described them as follows, “A first-class war-canoe, with all its many fittings, its’ hundred paddles, its’ handsome elaborately carved stem and stern, and all its many ornaments and decorations of feathers, rouge, and mother-of-pearl, was always the work of many hands throughout many years.” “Their largest canoes were rigged with two masts and carried a large light triangular-shaped sail on each.” (Best, 1924. 60)

“The old war-canoe was a very beautiful object: painted red and black, with elegantly carved head and stern pieces, the bows adorned with grace-fully projecting curved rods, ornamented with tufts of white albatross-feathers, and with white feathers every few feet along the battens which covered the joint where the solid hull was built up by the top boards. They were very fast, and could, in favorable weather, travel ten miles an hour under the rhythmical dip of over a hundred paddlers. (Ibid, 62)

MAU RĀKAU (Māori Weaponry)

Long and short clubs were the main two types of weapons for use in hand-to-hand combat. The Taiaha is a long-handled, fire-hardened wooden stave which combines the uses of a broadsword, quarterstaff, spear and club. The taiaha features a long, tapering flattened shaft or blade broadening towards the opposite end with a head, nose, eyes, lips, teeth, mouth and tongue-shaped spearhead. The weapon is often named after an ancestor. 

Taumatawhakatangihangakōauauotamateaturipūkakapikimaungahoronukupōkaiwhenuakitanatahu (Taumata-whakatangihanga-kōauau-o-tamatea-turi-pūkaka-piki-maunga-horonuku-pōkai-whenua-ki-tana-tahu) is the longest place name in the world with 85 letters. It is the Māori name for a hill, 305 metres high, overlooking Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. The name translates roughly as “the summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, playing his flute to his loved one” (New Zealand Travel).