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

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.

We have come a long way from my high school days in the 80’s, where compulsory Maori classes were a source of division in our little town. We still have a long way to go. I am proud to say that I am *tangeta tiriti* – a New Zealander because the treaty of Waitangi agrees that we can share this land with the *tangata whenua*.