MAORI CULTURE

Māori culture (Māori: Māoritanga) is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the
indigenous Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Eastern
Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture and, due to a
large diaspora and the incorporation of Māori motifs into popular culture, it is found throughout
the world.[1][2] Within Māoridom, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the
word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori culture, the Māori-
language suffix -tanga being roughly equivalent to the qualitative noun-ending -ness in English.[3]
[4]
Māoritanga has also been translated as "[a] Māori way of life."[5]

Four distinct but overlapping cultural eras have contributed historically to Māori culture:

 before Māori culture had differentiated itself from other Polynesian cultures (Archaic
period)
 before widespread European contact (Classic period)
 the 19th century, in which Māori began interacting more intensively with European
visitors and settlers
 the modern era since the beginning of the twentieth century

The Māori language is known as te reo Māori, shortened to te reo (literally, "the language"). At
the beginning of the twentieth century, it seemed as if te reo Māori – as well as other aspects of
Māori life – might disappear. In the 1980s, however, government-sponsored schools (Kura
Kaupapa Māori) began to teach in te reo, educating those with European as well as those with
Māori ancestry