How come European New Zealanders embraced the native Maori tradition while Australians did not?
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First up, Church Missionary groups from the UK took opportunities to reach New Zealand very early. This meant that Māori as a language was translated and written within a few years of colonists and missionaries arriving. There was no such effort for the many different Aboriginal languages in Australia. The Māori also responded to both the message from the missionaries and the educational opportunities they offered.
Those same Church groups in England also wielded significant political power (the same groups that campaigned against the transatlantic slave trade) in the UK. Having seen what was happening to native groups in Australia and other countries, they took a stand against forced colonization and pushed for a British Governor to be appointed and rights to be extended to Māori. This eventually led to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Regardless of the issues of interpretation of what the Treaty actually meant and the subsequent government land grabs in the Waikato and other places, the existence of the treaty affected how New Zealand society developed. The resurgence of Māori awareness of their cultural heritage in the 70s and the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal to address historic claims means that New Zealanders have spent over fifty years of effort into making things better, even if we can’t always make things right.
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