Indigneous people of New Zealand, originating in South Pacific. Signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi, 1840. One of the national languages of NZ (The others being English and Sign).
Even the NZ Maori Rugby team can usually beat Wales
By sloanie
Gang ridden, uneducated group of Polynesians who landed in New Zealand a thousand or so years ago. They are either in jail, in a gang or on the dole. The appropriate black American cultures and love to think of themselves as tough. Mostly their just drunk or high.
"Maori man arrested for abusing children and stealing a car sentenced to 6 weeks home detention"
By Prosoldier
Maori is an adjective habitually misused in New Zealand as a collective noun. pronounced either maari or moeri if you want a job in TV, academia, or public service. Pronounced mow-ri by everyone else. The literal meaning is "ordinary". That is how the first group of people who arrived in NZ chose to describe themselves relative to the (slightly) later arrivals who they chose to call pakeha (outsider, alien, foreigner). New Zealand is an homogenised monocultural society (with terrible suppressed racial ethno-political tension). Some New Zealanders have some maori ancestry. None have only maori ancestry. Maori means maori person, a person with some maori ancestry. In media and political usage "maori" is a collective noun used when attempting to sensationalise a news story or when promoting an outrageous political agenda for one's own personal benefit.
correct usage: "Rangi is of maori descent" "Many maori people are fine singers" incorrect usage: "maori are outraged" (maori people do not have a hive mind - like the Borg on Star Trek) "maori own the water" ("maori" is not an entity. It is a variable attribute of people, people who already own or don't own the water in exactly the same way as all the other people who don't have that attribute )
By whakapu
Early settlers of New Zealand, often wrongly described as 'native' or 'indigenous'. There are no people native or indigenous to the New Zealand islands. Everyone arrived by boat in one form or another, very recently in human and geological terms, and Maori were by no means the first. The word "Maori" was coined by Maori themselves to differentiate them from the white people (or 'Pakeha') who arrived after them from Britain, Australia, America, and Europe. The word has been defined as meaning "ordinary" or "normal" people. It did not exist in pre-European New Zealand, where the various tribes knew themselves and one another by individual family and tribal names. Maori are generally accepted to have been in residence in New Zealand since around 1200 - 1300 AD. Maori are said to be a Polynesian race, although parts of their geneology have been traced to Taiwan and China, and there are other influences from as far away as Egypt and Sri Lanka. Some East Coast tribes from the North Island possess Portugese genetic markers. Much of the truth of the origins of Maori is muddied by the editing of history to suit contemporary politics, and by the intermingling of Maori bloodlines with those of the peoples they found already living in New Zealand upon their own arrival.
First British Naval Officer: "We have made a Treaty with the Maori, Sir. All New Zealand land now belongs to us." Second British Naval Officer: "Excellent. Release the Hounds." First etc.: "Aye aye, Sir. More rum, Sir?" Second etc.: "Abso-bloody-lutely. And bring me a Maori wench. I'm tired of all this Naval arse-buggery, never mind how traditional it is. It smacks of homosexuality, if you ask me." First: "Very good Sir."
By Flash the Squirrel
* A person who originates from Polynesia, and settled in New Zealand before the Medieval ages. * A New Zealander I believe this definition has been hit by the national front, or some bored helpless cases. I have some sense.
NZ teacher: " Where did maori culture originate?" Kid: "In New Zealand, dumbass!"
By Sip+Suck