Why are the Māori people, who arrived in the 1300s, so well recognized in NZ but Aboriginal Australians, who are said to be 65000 years old inhabitants, not so well recognized in Australia?

Question

I will be immigrating to either of these countries next year and was just reading about their history & culture, and found this weird.

The Europeans arrived in NZ just about 300 years after the Māori, yet majority of the cities/towns/hamlets you see in NZ are named after Māori names, Māori culture has been well integrated with the European culture and are very well recognized/respected, for example the Haka dance done on multiple occasions by the national rugby union team, the Māori name of NZ on the passport (Aotearoa), the Māori traditions and symbols etc.

But, you don’t see the same level of cognizance for Aboriginal Australians in Australia, even though they are said be 65000 years. There are hardly any cities named after Aboriginal names, no sign of Aboriginal culture integrated into the Australian lingo or cultural practices?

So, why does this incongruity exist between both the nations?

**EDIT**: Thank you so much for the detailed answers, everyone! I appreciate it dearly. Learnt a lot of new things today 🙂

In: Other

Answer 1

While nz and oz were colonized, the Maori fought like hell and actually secured a treaty that recognized their sovere9gnty: the treaty of whaitangi.

In short the crown recognized Maori as people (not so much australian aboriginals), recognized their ownership of the land, and set up a system by which only the crown could purchase land from the Maori, and only willingly.

Of course they still tried to destroy their culture and steal their land, but the Maori had a huge advantage in that to this day there is still a legal system for Maori people to challenge land disputes, which they often win due to that treaty.