The Maori Culture

The myths, common to everybody Polynesian, from which arise the Maori, tell how the demigod Maui, would have fished for the island of the North of the bottom of the oceans and how his petrified canoe would have become the island of the South. Other storiesdescribe the arrival of Kupe, the first Maori, since Hawaiki, is in hiding sacred which some assimilate to the island of Raiatea (near Tahiti). It is him who names this immense earth Aotearoa (" the country of the long white cloud "). Soon, the other men and women join him: the history of New Zealand becomes confused henceforth with the Maori. The historians confirm the legend, by placing the migrations at about the year 1000.