How come European New Zealanders embraced the native Maori tradition while Australians did not?
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A lot of people have already talked about the Maori presenting a more united front and being able to negotiate a treaty, but I want to talk about why that is.
You have to keep in mind that Aboriginal people first settled Australia about 50,000 years ago (or more, depends on who you ask). It’s the longest continuous culture in the world.
That timeframe, and the huge size and variation of Australia (about the same size as the contiguous US), meant that there was a lot of diversification. Different languages, different groups, different Dreaming – Aboriginal people weren’t really one society, they were hundreds of different societies. You can’t come and negotiate with a representative of all Aboriginal people, you can’t talk to them all in the same language, you can’t even travel to where they live without a lot of people dying. So you can pick them off group by group as you expand.
New Zealand, however, was settled by the Maori less than 1,000 years ago and is much smaller. So you have a common language, more overlap in culture, and a more concentrated society who can rally together and you can actually negotiate with.
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