The Aotearoa History Show S2 | Episode 2: Māori: The First 500 Years | RNZ

Summary

The video script traces the history of Māori in Aotearoa from the arrival of the first waka circa 1270 AD through phases of early exploration, adaptation to the new landscape and extinction of the moa, societal changes and migrations with the shift to agriculture, increasing conflict and fortifications in the 'transitional phase', further cultural evolution in the 'traditional phase' up to first contact with Europeans in 1769, examining key concepts like utu and developments in social structure, art, trade relationships between hapū over this 500-year period.

Takeaways

• 😀 Early Māori lived in small, temporary camps near coasts and rivers, hunting birds, fishing, and gathering shellfish
• 😮 Archaeologists uncovered evidence of New Zealand's 'first capital' at Wairoa Bay where early Māori made tools and shared knowledge
• 😯 The extinction of the moa bird around 1450 AD forced a reliance on kumara and migration into the 'kumara zone'
• 😠 Increasing competition and climate change led to more conflict and defensive fortifications in the 'transitional phase'
• 🎨 New art forms emerged as Māori worked with local materials like pounamu and bone
• 👪 The oral tradition became more detailed as hapū asserted land rights through whakapapa recitals
• 🌱 South Island Māori relied on seasonal food sources and an exchange system called kaihokai
• ⛺ In the 'traditional phase' Māori culture continued evolving with largers alliances between hapū and iwi
• ✊ The biggest battle may have involved up to 16,000 warriors in the late 1700s/early 1800s
• 🤝 The arrival of Europeans in 1769 marked the end of the 'traditional phase' of Māori history

Q & A

What was the name of the Tahitian navigator who first stepped ashore in New Zealand in 1769?

Tupaya

Why did the early phase of Māori arrival, exploration and occupation seem relatively peaceful?

Experts think this early phase was peaceful because there were so few people and an abundance of food, so there was little need to fight and good reasons to cooperate.

How did Māori track rights to land and assert identity?

By reciting whakapapa, which asserts both rights to land and identity. Whakapapa serves as a family tree, legal record, and oral history.

What was the Little Ice Age and how did it impact Māori culture?

The Little Ice Age was a period of global cooling from around 1300-1850 AD. In New Zealand, it led to smaller harvests and increased competition for resources, likely contributing to more conflict and changes in culture.

What was the importance of pounamu (greenstone) to Māori?

Pounamu was highly prized and traded widely as a symbol of status and mana. Control of pounamu sources conferred power and the stone was fashioned into tools, weapons and ornaments.

How were early Māori settlements different from later, more permanent villages?

Early settlements were temporary camps that relied on plentiful wild foods and moved location when local resources were depleted. Later permanent villages focused on tending crops and defending productive land.

What is utu and how was it used?

Utu refers to the concept of balance, cost and reparation in Māori customary law. It demanded a response that was appropriately balanced. Tawamuru raids were a form of utu.

How did Māori adapt to colder conditions in New Zealand?

Adaptations included reliance on the tropical kumara plant in northern regions, seasonal migrations to gather wild foods in the south, and widespread trade of preserved foods between regions.

What were the main phases in pre-European Māori history?

Archaeologists divide early Māori history into the colonisation phase (~1280-1400 AD), transitional phase (~1300-1600) which saw major upheaval, and traditional phase (~1500-1800) when classic Māori structures developed.

What is an iwi and how were they increasingly important over time?

Iwi refers to a large tribal grouping descended from early Polynesian ancestors. They became important for trade, warfare, celebrations, building projects and exerting political influence.

Outlines

00:00

😊 First encounters between Māori and Europeans

This paragraph describes the first meeting between Māori and Europeans when Tūpaia, a Tahitian navigator, arrived in New Zealand with Captain Cook in 1769. It talks about the initial violent encounter when Cook's men opened fire and killed a Māori leader, but then on their second meeting, Tūpaia was able to communicate with Māori despite hundreds of years of separation. Tūpaia saw similarities but also many unfamiliar things in Māori culture after exploring their world.

05:00

👪 Māori social hierarchy and early settlements

This paragraph discusses the social hierarchy in early Māori society, with chiefs (rangatira) often being senior descendants of ancestors considered divine. It also covers archaeological evidence about some of the first settlements, describing temporary coastal camps used for fishing and hunting which were moved when food sources were depleted. A possible early capital, Waitabar, is also mentioned as a gathering place for early arrivals.

10:01

🥕 How climate and food sources changed Māori culture

This paragraph explains how Māori culture changed significantly around 1500 AD due to extinction of the moa bird and declining food sources. This forced a reliance on kumara and migration of most Māori into warmer North Island regions where kumara could grow. Oral histories become more detailed during this transitional phase to assert land rights. There is also evidence of increasing conflict during this turbulent time.

15:02

🤝 Utu, taua muru, par - tools for justice and defense

This section looks at utu (rebalancing/atonement), tawamuru (plundering raids to right wrongs) and par (fortified villages) as ways Māori aimed to resolve disputes without all-out war. It notes the increasing threat of warfare seen through more weapons and hilltop forts (par) built to protect people and resources as competition grew with the climate changes and food pressures.

20:04

😌 Trade, migration and adaptation over time

The last paragraph explains how Māori culture kept evolving into the early 1800s, through changes in climate, trade relationships between hapū (subtribes), increasing alliances and collaborations between groups on important projects and ceremonies. It emphasizes Māori society was still transforming significantly when Europeans first arrived.

Keywords

💡colonisation

The term 'colonisation' refers to the arrival and settlement of the first Polynesian migrants in New Zealand, beginning around 1270 AD. It describes the initial exploration and occupation phase, as the first waka arrived from Eastern Polynesia and people spread out to inhabit the motu (islands). This was a distinct phase in the evolution of Maori culture and society.

💡transitional phase

The 'transitional phase' refers to the period from around 1300 AD to 1600 AD. This marked a major turning point, as large food sources like moa birds declined, the climate changed, and Maori culture transformed. People relied more on agriculture, populations concentrated in certain areas, land rights and tribal identity became more salient, and signs of warfare emerged.

💡traditional phase

The 'traditional phase' spanned approximately 1500 AD to 1800 AD. By this time, distinct Maori cultural practices and social structures had taken shape. However, Maori society continued to evolve and change during this period, with large migrations, increased alliances between tribes, and greater collaboration under ariki (paramount leaders).

💡hapū

Hapū refers to subtribes or kinship groups within a larger Māori tribe (iwi), unified by a common ancestor. Hapū were typically composed of whānau (extended families) and were the primary sociopolitical unit in traditional Māori society. They often fought, traded, and made decisions together even as alliances between iwi became more salient over time.

💡pā

Pā refers to the fortified villages that emerged as signs of warfare increased during the transitional phase. Thousands of pā appeared inside the kumara zone to protect land, resources, and people in times of conflict. Their size and elaborateness enhanced the mana of resident chiefs.

💡kai

Kai simply refers to food. The video discusses how reliance on different food sources (like kumara, preserved birds, fish, etc.) structured Māori life in terms of migration patterns, permanent settlements, and inter-hapū trade.

💡kumara

The kumara is a sweet potato that was brought by the original Polynesian migrants. After large food sources declined, the kumara became the primary food for sustenance and trade. Reliable kumara harvests only occurred in warmer northern coastal areas, causing major population shifts over time.

💡ponamu

Pounamu refers to greenstone (jade), a treasured mineral resource across Māori society. Highly prized and traded all over New Zealand, pounamu served as an important gift item and status symbol enhancing the mana of those who possessed it.

💡utu

Utu refers to the concept of reciprocal balance and just compensation for offenses in Māori customary law. It underscored practices like tawamure (non-violent plundering raids) which provided measured, appropriate responses to insults or trespasses instead of outright warfare.

💡ariki

Ariki were paramount chiefs and leaders, often hereditary roles tracing descent back to key ancestors. Over time, multiple hapū and sometimes entire tribes would unite under particularly powerful ariki for military campaigns or projects, with decisions made collectively.

Highlights

When Tūpāia visited these islands in 1769, nobody in Aotearoa called themselves Māori

Archaeologists think of Wairoa as basically New Zealand's first capital city

After the extinction of large animals like moa and seals most Māori had to fall back on a food they had bought with them from the tropical islands - the kumara

During the early phase of Māori occupation settlements were evenly distributed across Te Ika-a-Māui and Te Wai Pounamu (the North and South Islands)

The only exception was the Moriori people on Rēkohu/Wharekauri (the Chatham Islands)

If you were at Ōtāngarei and you caught someone trespassing on your land, how did you prove it was yours? You used your whakapapa

Launching a war for a minor insult or trespass wouldn't be appropriate utu

Pā often contained carvings of atua and important ancestors

Pōnaumu was so important to Māori (still is) that it was traded all over New Zealand

Your whānau might harvest birds in summer months. You would preserve some to eat in the winter but also to give some to other people within or beyond your hapū

In the late 1700s or early 1800s, the paramount leader of Ngāti Pikoia-te-Rangi got into a major dispute with other hapū of Waikato and Maniapoto

In response the hapū of Waikato, Ngāti Maniaporto and Ngāti Apakura made an alliance

Decisions were made collectively, the wishes of ariki could be overruled if their people disagreed with them

As more and more Māori began speaking, working and living with visiting explorers, whalers and missionaries and Aotearoa was pulled into the expanding British Empire, Māori society would change once again

Who knows where it might have led but as more and more Māori began speaking, working and living with visiting explorers, whalers and missionaries and Aotearoa was pulled into the expanding British Empire

Transcripts

on october 9 1769 the tahitian navigator

tupaya stepped on the shore of aotearoa

new zealand for the first time a few

months earlier british navy lieutenant

james cook had brought to bayer on board

the hm east endeavour as an expert

navigator and translator as the ship

explored the south pacific now they were

at the mouth of the tsuranganui river

these days home to gisborne's port but a

day earlier when cook first arrived in

aotearoa he didn't bring to pyre with

him and the endeavour's first meeting

with maori ended in disaster

when maori first encountered cook's men

cook's men opened fire and killed ngati

onion leader

a day later one hundred warriors of

are gathered on shore but cook had

realized his mistake this time he

brought dupaya onshore with him

and even though maori had been separated

from tahiti and eastern polynesia for

500 years dupaya understood them

tsupaya stepped forward and introduced

himself it turned out they had more in

common than language they shared values

like manakitanga roughly translated to

hospitality and for nonongatanga

connection but later as tupaya explored

the maori world he saw things which were

totally unfamiliar he saw kumara planted

in rows of mounded earth and stored in

deep pits he saw the huge wooden earth

defenses of par fortified villages he

saw elaborate curved patterns on wooden

carvings and in tamuka tattoos none of

it was anything like what dupai knew

from home in tahiti during their 500

year separation from the rest of the

pacific the people of aotearoa had

transformed

how what changed well that's what this

episode's all about the 500 year

evolution of maori

[Music]

and this is the aotearoa history show

people often talk about maori culture

before tupaya arrived as if it was just

a single thing and that's totally wrong

mahdi were a network of tribes and

confederations each with their own

history and way of doing things when

tupaya visited these islands in 1769

nobody in aotearoa called themselves

maori the word literally just means

ordinary and only became common later in

the 19th century when people needed a

word to distinguish indigenous new

zealanders from european colonists

there's also a tendency to imagine maori

as a people frozen in time but of course

over 500 years any society is going to

change a lot when people study maori

history before european contact they

usually divide it into three phases

first the earliest phase of arrival and

occupation currently estimated to run

from sometime in the late 1200s to

around 1400 a.d

this is when the first waka arrived and

people spread out around the motu or

islands

archaeologists and historians call this

the colonisation phase which is a bit

confusing because we usually talk about

pakhya colonisation and that didn't

happen until 500 years later next the

transitional phase roughly 1300 to 1600.

moira became extinct the climate changed

and there was huge social upheaval as

people had to rely more on agriculture

for food finally the traditional phase

approximately 1500 to 1800 a.d

this is when the cultural structures we

see as distinctly maori were embedded

but society was still changing there

were huge migrations and increasing

collaborations within and between tribes

and these three phases happened at

different times and in different ways in

different parts of aotearoa like down

south the tribes of ngatahu relied

entirely on hunting fishing and other

wild sources of kai all the way up until

the 1800s whereas in the far north

teheku people were likely growing crops

early on taking advantage of the warmer

climate okay so let's start at the

beginning

what do we know about the people who

first settled altera

well we know they came from eastern

polynesia probably in or near tahiti

maybe rarotonga the latest evidence

suggests several hundred people made the

voyage here aboard multiple waka they

lived in groups of roughly 50 to 100

made up of a handful of whanau extended

families well the whanauna tribe could

trace their heritage back to shiite

ancestors tribes were often named after

a female tipuna which helps to explain

why the maori word for subtribe is hapu

which also means pregnant yeah

emphasizes shared ancestry but that

doesn't mean everyone was equal this

hierarchy started long before

polynesians arrived in aotearoa it was

largely determined by whakapapa or

ancestry the chiefs rangatira were often

the eldest sons and daughters of their

elder sons and daughters going way back

to ancestors described as descended from

gods this meant they were particularly

tapu and therefore held a lot of mana

spiritual power and authority these

first people all came within a hundred

years of each other on deliberate

voyages starting around 1270 a.d well at

least that's the current best estimate

the descendants rapidly spread out

around aotearoa and outlying islands

some hapu traveled hundreds of

kilometers from mainland new zealand to

places like rangitahua makahuka and

norfolk island experts believe stone

tools found on australia's east coast

might belong to voyages from these

outlying islands the locations of tools

and wild bones sometimes mark the sites

of clanger villages or camps looking at

what's left at these camps tell

archaeologists quite a bit about the

people who lived there for one thing

early kainga were only occupied for a

couple of decades at most they weren't

permanent villages second they're often

found near river mouths and sit next to

huge piles of bone and shell it looks

like early maori would sail along the

coast of the waka stopping at a river

mouth and set up cap then they would

travel inland hunting moi and other

large birds and along the coast

harvesting fish shellfish and seals when

these food sources ran out they simply

moved on these camps are also

interesting because of the stuff we

don't find for one thing there are very

few weapons those only turn up later

so maybe this phase when maori first

occupied altera was more peaceful than

later phases or maybe weapons in this

era were made of wood rather than stone

so they rotted before archaeologists

could find them or maybe they were so

valuable their owners carried them away

so many question marks there are

different ways of interpreting the

evidence but most experts think this

early phase of maori arrival exploration

and occupation was relatively peaceful

for the first one or two hundred years

there were so few people and so much

quiet food that there wasn't much need

to fight and lots of reasons to

cooperate instead of weapons

archaeologists find tools particularly

toki types of ads

we find toki all over alteroa and some

of the outlying islands

most of these tools are made from a

stone called argolite and they're mostly

made in the same place wait obar

archaeologist daginet wairoba have found

nearly 40 tonnes of argolite chips

leftovers from making dukkhi that means

hundreds must have been made at this

site every year it was a little tookie

factory archaeologists have also

uncovered giant umu cooking pits filled

with the bones of thousands of more and

seals plus sixteen hundred tons of

shells wairoba also has something we

don't find in other early maori

settlements a cemetery urupa the bones

of roughly 60 people have been

discovered there when archaeologists

analyzed those bones closely they

discovered some of those people had

diets which were high in sugar and low

in protein now that suggests they grew

up in tropical polynesia eating sugary

fruit not in cold new zealand eating

meat so these might be the bones of the

very first people to come to aotearoa

so what does this all mean what was

widow bar four

well aotearoa was a weird landscape it

was different from the tropical islands

the first migrants came from bigger

wetter colder and these early arrivals

needed a place where different hapu

could gather together tell each other

what they discovered which foods were

poisonous which were good to eat and to

trade with each other they needed a

place to reinforce connections share

gossip and memories of the old days

and for expert tool makers to practice

their craft and teach it to the next

generation so archaeologists think of

wairoba as basically new zealand's first

capital city but within a hundred years

wait obar was abandoned probably because

local food sources ran out to tell the

story of white oba we rely almost

entirely on archaeological evidence

that's because oral histories of these

early days of maori occupation focus on

stories of rangatira traveling around

aotearoa claiming land for their poo but

they don't talk much about the details

of day-to-day life writing about the old

traditions of the thai nui people famous

ngati maniapoto historian dr bruce biggs

wrote this

for the first seven or eight generations

little bat personal names are recorded

in pedigree stemming from just a few of

the immigrants then beginning with tafal

in 1475 the tradition suddenly becomes

more detailed it is an astonishingly

detailed record matched in the pacific

only by other maori tribal histories all

of which seem to follow a pattern of

sparsely recorded remote past followed

by a sudden efflorescence of detail

beginning three to four centuries ago

that explosion in the oral tradition

marks a turning point in this new maori

culture the start of the transitional

phase

and historians think this pretty much

comes down to kai

more and seals reproduced slowly and

their populations couldn't cope with the

amount of hunting going on by 1450 a.d

the last moore had vanished and the seal

population had been decimated

so why did maori hunt these animals so

heavily well in the tropical islands

maori came from they hunted animals that

had evolved to reproduce quickly it

helped them cope with disasters like

typhoons and tsunamis aotearoa's animals

evolved in a more stable environment so

they became slow breeders to avoid

overpopulation it seems likely that

after the extinction of the war maori

learnt and managed natural resources

they probably used rahui temporary bans

on gathering those resources in certain

areas and we still use that now but with

the extinction of large animals like moi

and seals most maori had to fall back on

a food they had bought with them from

the tropical islands the kumara to grow

a decent crop kumara needs the average

temperature to stay above 15 degrees for

five months in tropical polynesia that

means two harvests a year but if you

hadn't already noticed aotearoa is not a

tropical island

so it was only possible to get one crop

a year and only in what we'll call the

kumara zone northerly coastal parts of

the country where it's a little bit

warmer so this was a time of massive

migration during the early phase of

maori occupation settlements were evenly

distributed across the kaamawi and tewai

ponamu the north and south islands but

by the end of the transitional phase

about 98 of maori lived inside the

kumara zone the remaining two percent

lived in the southern north island and

parts of the south island where they

migrated between seasonal sources of

craig

the more remote islands were completely

abandoned probably because they were too

small to sustain a permanent population

the only exception was the moriori

people on reikuhu farikauri the chatham

islands and motel their remarkable story

in another episode as you'd imagine the

switch from more to kumara as the

primary source of food led to huge

societal changes you had to stay near

your kumara pretty much all year to tend

them and make sure that someone didn't

come along and steal them so maori had

to set up permanent settlements and it

became really important to know which

land belonged to your hapu and which

belonged to your neighbour this is why

we see that explosion and detail of the

oral tradition around 1500 a.d

like if you were at angate and you

caught someone trespassing on your land

how did you prove it was yours you used

your whakapapa you said hey my tip and i

claimed this land hundreds of years ago

and have held it ever since i can tell

you their name i can tell you how they

did it i can tell you the names of all

of the descendants up until today

reciting whakapapa asserts both your

rights to land and your identity the two

are connected any transfer of land or

resources through marriage or warfare or

gifting is also recorded in these

stories

so the oral histories get more detailed

as land becomes more valuable they are a

library a legal record and a family tree

all in one on top of the extinction of

the moor and the decline of other large

animals maori faced another big change

in the transitional phase from 1300 to

1600 the beginning of the little ice age

several hundred years of global cooling

and rapidly changing weather patterns

historians think the little ice age

reduced harvests and increased

competition for farmland and other

sources of kai this didn't just affect

altera it's linked to disruption and

cultural change all over the pacific

pretty much everywhere from fiji to

timor to new zealand we start seeing

more signs of warfare in the

archaeological record more weapons and

more defensive fortifications we also

get more mentions of violence and

battles and maori oral histories but

just because warfare was increasing

doesn't necessarily mean it was common

maori had ways of trying to resolve

disputes without bloodshed one of the

most important was toa muru

say a rangatira and your neighbor

insults you or hunts in your hapu's

patch of forest or takes fish from your

stream

you could launch an all-out war against

them but that would be an overreaction

like life in prison for stealing a

packet of chips the punishment needed to

fit the crime you needed uttu utsu is a

key concept of tsikanga maori customary

law it's commonly mistranslated as

revenge but it actually means something

more like rebalancing cost or reparation

we can understand otsu a bit better by

looking at it as one of three

interlocking concepts

or issue demands utsu an appropriate

response resulting in air balance coming

back to our example launching a war for

a minor insult or trespass wouldn't be

inappropriate or two it'd be an

overreaction and costly for everyone and

it might prevent both sides from

achieving a state of air so instead

people on both sides agreed to a tawa

muru which was sort of like a relatively

non-violent plundering raid a way of

publicly righting a wrong that fell

short of actual combat of course

tawamuru couldn't resolve every dispute

when violent conflict did happen it was

usually uttu for a more serious take

like for the murder of arangatera or for

a dispute over resources the growing

threat of warfare and the transitional

phase led to the building of par

defensive fortifications thousands of

power pop up around aotearoa almost all

inside the kumara zone some were just

small forts to protect kumara pits

others were much larger the biggest was

maungakiakia pa one tree hill in

auckland in the 1700s it covered 17

hectares and could protect 5 000 people

in times of crisis power also had

religious significance in fact when

topia saw his first power he didn't

think of them as fortifications at all

but more like giant temples and in a way

he was right par often contained

carvings of atswa and important

ancestors singarangatira lived at

elevated positions within par which were

tapu spaces particularly large and

elaborate part enhanced the mana of the

rangatira who lived there and of their

wadahapu and par weren't the only status

symbols through the transitional phase

archaeologists start finding elaborately

carved ornaments tools weapons and waka

some archaeologists say this suggests an

increasing hierarchy a growing gulf

between higher ranking rangatira and

lower ranking common people

several european explorers and

missionaries commented that maori were

more conscious of social status than

other pacific people although we have to

be careful about these kinds of european

observations for one thing they

interpreted what they saw through a

european worldview often failing quite a

lot actually to fully understand nuances

in bao maori these europeans were also

observing maori at a time when dead

turned up out of nowhere imagine if

aliens landed in new zealand today and

wrote down what they saw i doubt we'd be

acting normally maybe not you these new

power waka and weapons we find in the

transitional phase are also often

decorated with new kinds of art

alongside the traditional rectilinear

art styles of eastern polynesia we start

seeing the curved flowing designs which

we think of today as distinctly mildy

this might partly reflect that during

the transitional phase from 1300 to 1600

maori were learning to work with new

materials they found in aotearoa there

was fine-grained

timber the bones of seals and whales

and most of all po

ponamu was super useful for maori a

beautiful mineral soft enough to be

shaped into jewellery and hard enough to

make an effective tool or weapon so it's

not surprising ponamu was especially

prized as a symbol of mana some hapu

migrated across cook strait especially

to access the land they called te

waipounamu the waters of greenstone

ponemon was so important to maori still

is that it was traded all over new

zealand but they weren't using cash

instead maori used a system of gift

exchange kind of like a mental iou a

good example of this is kaihokue the

ceremonial exchange of cry of food your

whanau might harvest birds in summer

months you would preserve some to eat in

the winter but also to give some to

other people within or beyond your

harpoon so later that year when your

stock of preserved birds were running

low your neighbour might harvest inanga

white bait and share that with you mean

deal okay hokai was particularly

important in the south island where it

was too cold to grow kumara instead the

hapu of maitahu traded seasonal sources

of kai to keep everyone fed all year

round this kind of utsu based trade is

still important to mini maori today and

it has deep roots in maori history we

already mentioned how tuki made at

wairouba were distributed far and wide

in the earliest phase of maori history

at the same time we find knives made

from obsidian sourced from tsuha mia

island in the bay of plenty those

obsidian blades are spread everywhere

from rakhi ura stuart island to raoul

islands and the kumadeks evidence of

long distance trade is harder to find in

the transitional phase archaeological

evidence shows maori were mostly making

stuff using local resources it's another

sign hapu were becoming more closely

tied to their land when they did trade

it was almost always with closely

related hapu and that makes sense right

you'd only give an iou to someone you

trust and for maori that usually meant

relatives the transitional phase of

maori history never really ended it just

flowed into the traditional phase the

phase maori were in when supaya and cook

landed at tsuranga in 1769

but this wasn't the end of maori

cultural evolution not by a long shot

looking at the oral histories and

material culture plus written european

accounts of maori in the early 1800s

it's clear the culture was still

changing why well for one thing the

climate had changed again by 1650 the

little ice age was ending aotearoa

became warmer and drier

as the kumara zone expanded samhapu

migrated away from heavily populated

northern parts of altearoa we also start

to see more collaboration between

closely related tapu and the growing

importance of wider ewe groups the word

ewi also means bones symbolizing the

deeper connections of hapu they are

typically named after ancestors who

arrived on the first waka to aotearoa

ewe connections became increasingly

important to hapu in the traditional

phase there were also increasing

alliances between ewi as time went on

in the late 1700s or early 1800s the

paramount leader of ngati

pikotserangi got into a major dispute

with other hapu of waikato and maniapoto

in particular ngati apokura pikoterangi

reached out to his relatives and they

reached out to their rallies together

they formed a massive alliance of ewi

and hapu including ati

together they planned an attack on pico

terrangi's enemies in response the hapu

of waikato ngati maniaporto and nati

apakura made an alliance they got ngati

fatsua and hapu of the haudaki gulf

involved too it was a large diverse

alliance of different ewi but they

agreed that in battle they would all

follow the commands of an araki a

paramount leader derunganga

this all ended with the battle of

hinakaka near mutu

this may have been the biggest battle

ever fought in aotearoa it's said to

have involved thousands of warriors some

say as many as sixteen thousand

pikota and his allies had the advantage

of numbers but their leadership was

divided each hapu was commanded

individually by its own rangatira

meanwhile his opponents were unified

under the leadership of terror

so in the end piko tarangi and his

allies were defeated

in the traditional phase from 1500 to

1800 a.d oral histories make increasing

reference to rangatira and their hapu

banding together under the mana of ataki

paramount leaders like

it wasn't just about warfare often

multiple hapu worked together to

celebrate important occasions create new

gardens and build new power and while

these projects were often organized by

ariki decisions were made collectively

the wishes of ariki could be overruled

if their people disagreed with them the

arrival of dupay and james cook marked

the beginning of the end of the

traditional phase and many other things

but it's interesting to imagine what

might have happened if that contact

never happened this was a time of

significant cultural and societal change

for maori who knows where it might have

led but as more and more maori began

speaking working and living with

visiting explorers whalers and

missionaries and altera was pulled into

the expanding british empire maori

society would change once again but

that's a story for a different episode

but for now that's us

[Music]

thanks for watching our show if you want

to know more about the history of maori

and aotearoa before the arrival of

europeans we've put links to some of the

resources we used in the description one

we found particularly useful was tangata

fino an illustrated history by ethel

anderson judith bini and aroha harris

hey kona