Culture & History
Rich in a unique history that ties both Maori and non - Maori people together and the first region of New Zealand, Northland is full of historical sites, stories and artefacts.
The tail of the fish
Maui, a Maori hero of ancient times, hooked an enormous fish after smuggling himself on board his brothers' canoe to prove his fishing prowess. Take a look at a map of New Zealand - the North Island is shaped like a stingray and known as Te Ika-a-Māui, Māui’s great fish, North Cape (near Cape Reinga) is the tail of the fish, Te Hiku o Te Ika, and and Wellington, Te Ūpoko o Te Ika, its head. The South Island was Maui’s canoe and Stewart Island the anchor stone.
The great explorer
Maori poi performance.
Kupe, the legendary explorer, with his crew voyaged deep into the Southern Ocean and Northland iwi (Maori tribes) claim the first landfall of Kupe's waka 'Matawhourua' was on the shores of the Hokianga Harbour. And so it is believed that Northland gave birth to Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Today, many iwi trace their ancestry back to Kupe and some of the oldest traces of Maori settlement, can be found in the Northland.
Europe arrives
In the late eighteenth century the Europeans arrived. They came on voyages of exploration initially, followed by traders, whalers and sealers. News of the temperate climate, the fertile land and the potential of kauri logging and kauri gum filtered back to the homelands - a big motivation for the migration which followed. Missionaries headed the next wave of arrivals.
The road to nationhood
The Stone Store at Kerikeri is New Zealand's oldest building.
Throughout known history the social structure of Maori has remained the same: from whanau (immediate family) to extended family (hapu) and ultimately iwi (tribe). There was no Maori nation: instead Maori saw themselves as belonging to their iwi.
In 1832, the Governor of New South Wales appointed James Busby as British Resident in New Zealand. It was the first formal step to bringing New Zealand into a permanent constitutional relationship with Britain. In February 1840, at his home in the Bay of Islands, Busby hosted the formal signing ceremony of the Treaty of Waitangi by representatives of the British Crown and Maori chiefs from the northern tribes. The Treaty is widely considered to be the founding document of New Zealand and today evidence of Northland as the 'Birthplace of a Nation' is everywhere.
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