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  • The word M�?ori refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, and to their language.

    M�?ori came to New Zealand from eastern Polynesia, probably in several waves, sometime before 1300. They spread throughout the country and developed a distinct culture. Europeans came to New Zealand in increasing numbers from the late 18th century, and the technologies and diseases they brought with them destabilised M�?ori society. After 1840, M�?ori lost much of their land and went into a cultural and numerical decline, but population began to increase again from the late 19th century, and a cultural revival began in the 1960s.

    In the M�?ori language the word m�?ori means "normal," "natural" or "ordinary." In legends and other oral traditions, the word distinguished ordinary mortal human beings from deities and spirits (wairua).

    _Wikipedia

    February 19, 2008