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 🙂
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A lot of good commentary already, but an additional thing I’d point out about aboriginal Australians, is that for a long time the request has been not to integrate the two cultures, but to ‘live and let live’ – enabling indigenous communities to live as they wish, and under their own system of laws. Aboriginal culture is not compatible with European culture to say the least, and attempts to westernise aboriginal people have all failed.
It’s one of the reasons I was so disappointed in our vote on the aboriginal Voice in parliament- aboriginal culture is so unique and different from western culture that efforts to live together need to be guided by, or at least heavily informed by, the aboriginal people. I don’t really see a future where the cultures are as successfully combined as NZ has managed, but I’m all for improving relations and addressing the problems that exist in Australia in a respectful and informed manner.
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