History

The exact date of the arrival of the first humans, the Maori, to New Zealand is not quite known. It is thought that they first landed from Polynesia about 1000 years ago and legend tells that they were led by a person called Kupe who exclaimed upon sighting the land: ‘He ao, he aotea, he aotearoa’ … It is a cloud… a white cloud… a long white cloud.

When the British first discovered New Zealand in the late 18th century, they tried to claim the land for their own. However, the British – or ‘Pakeha’ in Maori – had a fierce fight on their hands right from the very beginning, for the Maori would not easily give up the land that they had lived on for countless generations.

The need for some sort of peaceful agreement between the new Pakeha settlers and the Maori finally led to the Treaty of Waitangi being signed on 6 February 1840 between a group of Maori chiefs and the British government. This day is now commemorated each year as a public holiday. In the 20th century, large influxes of immigrants from, firstly, European countries, and more recently and in great numbers from Asia, have altered the multicultural make-up of the general population. Today, just under 10% of the overall population may be identified as Maori.