Māori Language and Culture in New Zealand

I told you in the last post that you would find it interesting how I came across this culture of people. I was watching an episode of a tv show called Lost and found about people in New Zealand looking for Biological family. There were a few that were of Māori heritage.

The Māori people in New Zealand originated from Eastern Polynesia in the 1300's. In the 18th Century arrivals of Europeans to New Zealand, brought changes to the Māori way of life. As other cultures sometimes do the Māori starting adopting some of the western culture into their daily lives.

Information taken from census records from 2000 - 2018 shows there were 939,853 Māori people living in New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Canada and other regions. 775,836 of those are residing in New Zealand, making up 16.5% of the Māori people.

The Māori language also known as te reo Māori or just Te Reo which means "The Language". Before contact with the European people Māori did not have a writing system, it was memorized and taught and passed down through generations. In 1817 they went on a quest to construct a written language for Māori. By 1830 they had a written Language.

The Māori alphabet has 15 letters two that are digraphs. A E H I K M N O P R T U W NG AND WH. The 5 vowels have short and long forms the long forms have a macron above them- Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū . There are so many resoures out there to learn about the Māori. Below I will leave the books that I purchased to read and learn from. Don't forget about your local libraries also they are a great resource. The video below is from YouTube and is a wedding video that took place in New Zealand and both bride and groom are Māori. In the video they also tell you about some of their customs. You will hear a native Māori speaking the language and the wedding party performs a traditional Haka, which the meaning is also explained in the video.

Hope you enjoyed this short look into the Māori people and Language. The topic of my next post will be a mystery to you and me. Don't forget to leave a comment if you have any Language you want me to talk about and I'll see what I can do!

English: Have a great day

Māori : Kia pai to ra