The word Māori refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, and to their language.
Māori came to New Zealand from eastern Polynesia, probably in several waves, sometime before 1300. They spread throughout the country and developed a distinct culture. Europeans came to New Zealand in increasing numbers from the late 18th century, and the technologies and diseases they brought with them destabilised Māori society. After 1840, Māori lost much of their land and went into a cultural and numerical decline, but population began to increase again from the late 19th century, and a cultural revival began in the 1960s.
In the Māori language the word māori means "normal", "natural" or "ordinary". In legends and other oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings from deities and spirits (wairua).
Early visitors from Europe to the islands of New Zealand generally referred to the inhabitants as "New Zealanders" or as "natives", but Māori became the term...
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