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

My Maori roommate was extremely proud that the European powers did *not* successfully colonize New Zealand by force — the Maori were able to fight European colonizers off often enough that they had to sign a treaty (Waitangi). Obviously a lot of colonialist shit happened (which she ALSO had a lot to say about, since her mother had been sent to a colonialist boarding school to get assimilated properly, which fortunately failed). And obviously the treaty has a complicated history others have mentioned in this thread.

But she was extremely proud that in the face of repeated invasions, with superior arms (gunpowder weapons), and with the epidemic diseases that arrive with colonialism, the Maori still managed to hold off the European powers until the British had to sign a treaty with them to permanently settle there. They were unsuccessful at times, and *barely* held on at times, but they were able to force the 1840 treaty, and that is NO SMALL FEAT when you’re a small indigenous population facing European navies, gunpowder, and diseases.

Imagine successfully fending off European colonizers for 200 years (1642-1840) until they’re finally like, “I give up! We’ll have a treaty!” Hawaii held out *later* (1893), but not *longer* (European contact was 1778), and Hawaii was overthrown.