Who are the Maoris?
Where did they come from? The Rev. J. Watkin, in his report to the Missionary Society, London, states that their “traditions as well as their language show them to have had an origin common with the Polynesians.” The problem has occupied the careful attention of the historian and the ethnologist for very many years, and although there are diversities of opinion, it is generally agreed that the Maori is a Polynesian with a blend of Melanesian blood. The latter connects him with the dark-skinned peoples of New Guinea and the adjacent islands. The ancestry of the Maori, however, may be traced much further back than to the islands of the Pacific. James Cowan in The Maori Yesterday and Today quotes from a Maori chant as follows: “I came from Great Distance, from Long-Distance, from – 10 – Very-Distant-Places — from Hawaiki.” “This formula,” says Mr. Cowan, “summarises the Maori idea of the migration of his ancestors, from one Tawhiti or Hawaiki to another, across the island-strewn Pacific.”
