Maori culture

Like many indigenous peoples, the Maoris have had their fair share of troubles. However, we sensed that the NZ government are making great strides to ensure Maoris have equal opportunities and their culture is recognised.

Maori culture is at one with nature, whether the use of trees and fauna, or the protection and use of sea creatures. Whale tails and fish hooks feature in Maori culture, as does Pounamu, which is a form of jade or greenstone.

The koru, an unfurling fern frond, symbolises new life, growth, strength and peace and is often the basis of Maori-style tattoos. Tattooing, as we know it today, is said to have entered western culture when James Cook returned from his first voyage. In what we might consider an extreme form, moko is created by carving rather than puncturing the skin, with men often having full face tattoos while women were traditionally adorned on their lips and chin. 

James Cook wrote, “The marks in general are spirals drawn with great nicety and even elegance. One side corresponds with the other. The marks on the body resemble foliage in old chased ornaments, convolutions of filigree work, but in these they have such a luxury of forms that of a hundred which at first appeared exactly the same no two were formed alike on close examination.”