The word Māori refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, and to their language.

Māori came to New Zealand from eastern Polynesia, probably in several waves, most likely between AD 1280 to 1300. They spread throughout the country and developed a distinct culture. Europeans came to New Zealand in increasing numbers from the late 18th century, and the technologies and diseases they brought with them destabilised Māori society. After 1840, Māori lost much of their land and went into a cultural and numerical decline, but their population began to increase again from the late 19th century, and a cultural revival began in the 1960s.

Naming and self-naming

In the Māori language the word māori means "normal", "natural" or "ordinary". In legends and other oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings from deities and spirits (wairua).

Early visitors from Europe to the islands of New Zealand generally referred to the inhabitants as "New Zealanders" or as "natives", but Māori became the term used by Māori to describe themselves in a pan-tribal sense.

Māori people often use the term tangata whenua (literally, "people of the land") to describe themselves in a way that emphasises their relationship with a particular area of land — a tribe may function as tangata whenua in one area, but not in another. The term can also refer to Māori as a whole in relation to New Zealand (Aotearoa) as a whole.

The Maori Purposes Act of 1947 required the use of the term 'Maori' rather than 'Native' in official usage, and the "Department of Native Affairs" became the "Department of Māori Affairs".

Prior to 1974 ancestry determined the legal definition of "a Māori person". For example, bloodlines determined whether a person should enrol on the Māori or general (European) electoral roll; in 1947 the authorities determined that one man, five-eighths Māori, had improperly voted in the general (European) parliamentary electorate of Raglan. The Māori Affairs Amendment Act 1974 changed the definition to one of cultural self-identification. In matters involving money (for example scholarships or Waitangi Tribunal settlements), the authorities generally require some demonstration of ancestry or cultural connection, but no minimum "blood" requirement exists.

Origins

[[image:Polynesian Migration.svg|right|thumb|300px|The Māori settlement of New Zealand represents the end point of a long chain of island-hopping voyages]] Archaeological and linguistic evidence (Sutton 1994) suggests that several waves of migration came from Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand between AD 800 and 1300. Māori oral history describes the arrival of ancestors from Hawaiki (a mythical homeland in tropical Polynesia) in large ocean-going canoes (waka: see Māori migration canoes). Migration accounts vary among tribes (iwi), whose members may identify with several waka in their genealogies or whakapapa.