Pākehā Māori is a term used to describe early European settlers in New Zealand (known as Pākehā in the Māori language) who lived among the Māori. Some were kept by the Māori as slaves, while others settled in Māori communities by choice, many being runaway seamen or escaped convicts. Some lived the rest of their lives amongst Māori but others, such as lapsed missionary Thomas Kendall, found it convenient to briefly "go native". They were often welcomed, took wives and were treated as Māori, particularly in the first two decades of the 19th century. The rarity value of Europeans in New Zealand and the importance of trade in western goods - particularly muskets - made Pākehā Māori highly prized. Some achieved a degree of prestige among the Māori and fought in battle with their adopted tribe in the Māori Wars, sometimes against European soldiers. Some even received the moko or facial tattoo. However as more Europeans arrived, the status of renegade Europeans among Māori fell. By the end of the New Zealand Wars in the mid 1860s European government was effectively extended over the entire country, and Māori culture declined as the vast majority of Maori chose or were cajoled into adopting English language and Western cultural mores. The early settler Frederick Edward Maning published two books under the pseudonym Pakeha Māori.
See also
References
- Pakeha Maori: The extraordinary story of the Europeans who lived as Maori in early New Zealand by Trevor Bentley; published 1999 ISBN 0-14-028540-7
