The Maori people lived in groups or tribes. They called their main tribe iwi. Each iwi had a paramount chief called an ariki. The iwi was divided into smaller tribes called hapu, each hapu had a chief, the rangatira. The hapu was made up of family groups the whanau.

Maori people felt their whanau, hapu and iwi were very, very important. Everything belonged to the group not to just one person.

Land

Land was owned by everyone. Each hapu had land where they could gather food, material for clothes and timber etc for houses. They also had places they could fish and places they could bury their dead people. The tribal land is very important because it is part of them; it is like their mother who cares for them. Without your mother you would be lost.

Religion

The paramount God was called Io, other gods had special...