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Introduction:
This passage is from the introduction to the book Taonga Mäori.
The book is about the art treasures of the New Zealand Mäori and
the introduction outlines the history of the Mäori people.
Text:
The
Mäori people are Polynesians, closely related to the inhabitants
of other islands of the central and eastern Pacific. About 3,500 years
ago skilled navigators with ocean-going canoes sailed into the central
Pacific from the west. Those who settled in the islands of Samoa and
Tonga developed features of language, culture and society which were
distinctively Polynesian. These were carried by their descendants to
all parts of the Polynesian triangle, which stretches from New Zealand
to Hawaii and Easter Island.
Aotearoa
(New Zealand) was one of the last land masses to be discovered by humans.
Its long isolation had resulted in many unusual features of plant and
animal life. The only land mammals were two small bats.
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In
the absence of animal predators, many species of flightless birds, some
very large, had evolved. When the Polynesians arrived, the country was
covered in forest, birds were extraordinarily abundant, and sea mammals,
particularly fur seals, were very numerous around the coast.
About
1,000 years ago, the first Polynesian explorers set foot on Aotearoa.
They were probably the first of many colonising expeditions from the
region that includes the Cook and Society Islands. The Polynesians who
discovered Aotearoa were descended from people who had lived for generations
on small tropical islands. They were fishermen and gardeners who took
plants and animals with them on their voyages of exploration. Many of
their tropical plants could not survive in temperate New Zealand, but
they established several food plants in warmer parts of the country
and introduced one domestic animal, the dog.
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