Maori & Vikings

The Maori would have you believe that they are the indigenous people of New Zealand, but in fact they are very much like the Vikings in that they came from elsewhere.  Like the Vikings they were very good sailors and having navigated by the stars, winds, wave patterns, currents and looking at birds they reached NZ  around the early 14th century (so much later than the Vikings arrived in Britain) from Polynesia.  Whereas the Vikings travelled in longships, the Maori used outrigger canoes, probably twin hulled.  The one below is a model in the museum at Auckland.

 

At the Māori experience we went to we saw a single hulled canoe or waka which the Maori would have used for warfare.  It was manned by rather scary looking warriors.  To travel the South Pacific though the sailors would have needed more space to carry food, water, animals and plants as well as their personal possessions. Since they travelled in the warmer seas of the South Pacific the Maori didn't need to wear such warm clothes as the Vikings.

 

 

When they settled in New Zealand (which was given that name in 1642 by the Dutch sea captain Abel Tasman, the first European to visit) the Maori lived in small huts in villages around a central fire, not longhouses like the Vikings.

 

 

Unlike the Vikings, the Maori were more hunters than farmers. They hunted seals, dolphins and moan (large flightless birds that are now extinct). But they did grow kumara which are like sweet potatoes and we tried some when we had the hangi - a meal cooked the traditional way on hot stones which are then covered with wet cloths to produce steam.

 

 

The Maori were quite fearsome warriors like the Vikings and used long sticks, spears and short club like weapons.

 

 

But whereas the Vikings used runes the Maori had no written language. They relied entirely on the spoken word to pass on their history and stories like the Viking sagas.  They didn't have access to metals like the Vikings, so rather than produce intricate jewellery they produced amazing carvings.