Culture of New Zealand - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The culture of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

is largely inherited from British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and European custom

Politics of New Zealand

The politics of New Zealand take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic monarchy. The basic system is closely patterned on that of the Westminster System, although a number of significant modifications have been made...

, interwoven with Maori and Polynesian tradition. An isolated

Geography of New Zealand

The geography of New Zealand encompasses two main islands and a number of smaller islands, located near the centre of the water hemisphere. New Zealand varies in climate, from cold and wet to dry and to subtropical in some areas...

Pacific Island nation, New Zealand was comparatively recently settled by humans

History of New Zealand

The history of New Zealand dates back at least 700 years to when it was discovered and settled by Polynesians, who developed a distinct Māori culture centred on kinship links and land. The first European explorer to discover New Zealand was Abel Janszoon Tasman on 13 December 1642...

. Initially Māori only, then bicultural with colonial and rural values, now New Zealand is a cosmopolitan culture that reflects its changing demographics

Demographics of New Zealand

The demographics of New Zealand encompass the gender, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the 4.4 million people living in New Zealand. New Zealanders, informally known as "Kiwis", predominantly live in urban areas within the North Island...

, is conscious of the natural environment

Environment of New Zealand

The environment of New Zealand is characterised by unique flora and fauna and a variety of landforms contained within a small island nation...

, and is an educated, developed Western society.

Māori culture has predominated for most of New Zealand's history of human habitation. Māori voyagers

Kupe

In the Māori mythology of some tribes, Kupe was involved in the Polynesian discovery of New Zealand.-Contention:There is contention concerning the status of Kupe. The contention turns on the authenticity of later versions of the legends, the so-called 'orthodox' versions closely associated with S....

reached the islands of New Zealand some time before 1300, though exact dates are uncertain. Over the ensuing centuries of Māori expansion and settlement, Māori culture

Maori culture

Māori culture is the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, an Eastern Polynesian people, and forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture. Within the Māori community, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori...

diverged from its Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...

n roots. Māori established separate tribes, built fortified villages (Pā

-Places:* Pâ, a town in Burkina Faso* Pâ Department, a department in Burkina Faso* PA postcode area, in Scotland* Province of Palermo, Italy* Palo Alto, California* Panama, ISO country code** .pa, the country code top level domain for Panama...

), hunted and fished, traded commodities, developed agriculture, arts and weaponry, and kept a detailed oral history. Regular European contact began approximately 200 years ago, and British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

immigration proceeded rapidly during the nineteenth century.

The colonists had a dramatic effect on the indigenous Maori, bringing religion

Religion in New Zealand

Religion in New Zealand is dominated demographically by Christianity, at just over half of the population at the 2006 New Zealand Census although regular church attendance is probably closer to 15%...

, technology, and the English language

New Zealand English

New Zealand English is the dialect of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and...

. In 1840 Māori leaders signed the Treaty of Waitangi

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....

, intended to enable the tribes to live peacefully with the colonists. However after several incidents, the treaty was ignored and the New Zealand land wars

New Zealand land wars

The New Zealand Wars, sometimes called the Land Wars and also once called the Māori Wars, were a series of armed conflicts that took place in New Zealand between 1845 and 1872...

broke out from 1845, with Māori suffering a loss of land and identity, while also increasingly becoming a minority group over the following century. Despite such setbacks, Māori culture has regained much of its lost influence in recent decades.

European New Zealanders

New Zealand European

The term New Zealand European refers to New Zealanders of European descent who identify as New Zealand Europeans rather than some other ethnic group...

(Pākehā

Pakeha

Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...

), despite their location far from Europe, retained strong cultural ties to "Mother England." These ties were weakened by the demise of the British Empire and loss of special access to British meat and dairy markets. Pākehā began to forge a separate identity influenced by their pioneering history

History of New Zealand

, a rural lifestyle and New Zealand's unique environment. Pākehā culture became prevalent after the land wars, but after sustained political efforts, biculturalism and the Treaty of Waitangi

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....

became part of the school curriculum in the late 20th century, to promote understanding between Māori and Pākehā.

More recently, New Zealand culture has been broadened by globalization and immigration from the Pacific Islands

Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands are also sometimes collectively called Oceania, although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago....

, East Asia

East Asia

East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

and South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

. European and Māori remain the two largest ethnicities, but the large Polynesia

Polynesia

n population in Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

has prompted the observation that Auckland is now the largest Polynesian city in the world. However, the country outside of Auckland is still much less heterogeneous, with big parts of the South Island remaining predominantly of European descent.

New Zealand marks two national days of remembrance, Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day commemorates a significant day in the history of New Zealand. It is a public holiday held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840.-History:...

and ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...

, and also celebrates holidays during or close to the anniversaries of the founding dates of each province. The national anthem, "God Defend New Zealand

God Defend New Zealand

"God Defend New Zealand" is one of two national anthems of New Zealand, the other being "God Save the Queen". Legally they have equal status, but "God Defend New Zealand" is more commonly used, and is popularly referred to as "the national anthem"...

" is often sung with alternating Māori and English verses. Many citizens prefer to minimise ethnic divisions, simply calling themselves New Zealanders or Kiwis

Kiwi (people)

Kiwi is the nickname used internationally for people from New Zealand, as well as being a relatively common self-reference. The name derives from the kiwi, a flightless bird, which is native to, and the national symbol of, New Zealand...

Māori culture

The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand (Aotearoa). They probably arrived in south-western Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300, although dates of up to 2000 years ago still attract some support. The Māori settled the islands and developed a distinct culture.

Maori oral history tells of a long voyage from Hawaiki

Hawaiki

In Māori mythology, Hawaiki is the homeland of the Māori, the original home of the Māori, before they travelled across the sea to New Zealand...

(the mythical homeland in tropical Polynesia) in large ocean-going canoes (waka

Waka (canoe)

Waka are Māori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long...

). Māori mythology

Maori mythology

Māori mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be divided...

is a distinctive corpus of gods and heroes, sharing some Polynesian motifs. Some notable figures are Rangi and Papa

Rangi and Papa

In Māori mythology the primal couple Rangi and Papa appear in a creation myth explaining the origin of the world. In some South Island dialects, Rangi is called Raki or Rakinui.-Union and separation:...

, Māui

Maui (Maori mythology)

In Māori mythology, Māui is a culture hero famous for his exploits and his trickery.-Māui's birth:The offspring of Tū increased and multiplied and did not know death until the generation of Māui-tikitiki . Māui is the son of Taranga, the wife of Makeatutara...

, and Kupe

Kupe

.

Central to many cultural events is the marae

Marae

A marae malae , malae , is a communal or sacred place which serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies...

, where families and tribes gather for special occasions, such as pōwhiri

Powhiri

A Pōwhiri is a Māori welcoming ceremony involving speeches, dancing, singing and finally the hongi...

or tangi

Tangihanga

Tangihanga, or more commonly, Tangi, is a Māori funeral rite.Each iwi differs on how they honour those who pass. Tangihanga generally take three days with burial on the third day. From the moment of death, the tūpāpaku is rarely alone. The tūpāpaku is transported to the marae...

. Māori often call themselves "tāngata whenua

Tangata Whenua

Tāngata whenua is a Māori term of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and literally means "people of the land", from tāngata, 'people' and whenua land.-Meanings:...

" (people of the land), placing particular importance on a lifestyle connected to land and sea. Communal living, sharing, and living off the land are strong traditional values.

The distinct values, history, and worldview of Maori are expressed through traditional arts and skills such as haka

Haka

Haka is a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge from the Māori people of New Zealand. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment...

, tā moko

Ta moko

Tā moko is the permanent body and face marking by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Traditionally it is distinct from tattoo and tatau in that the skin was carved by rather than punctured...

, waiata

Maori music

Te Pūoro Māori or Māori Music is music composed or performed by Māori, the native people of New Zealand, and includes a wide variety of folk music styles, often integrated with poetry and dance, as well as modern rock and roll, soul, reggae and hip hop....

, carving, weaving, and poi. The concept of tapu (meaning taboo or sacred) is also a strong force in Māori culture, applied to objects, people, or even mountains.

Europeans migrated to New Zealand in increasing numbers from the late 18th century, and the weapon technologies and diseases they introduced destabilised Māori society. After 1840 and the Treaty of Waitangi

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....

, Māori lost much of their land and mana

Mana

Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....

(prestige and authority), entering a period of cultural and numerical decline. However their population began to increase again from the late 19th century, and a cultural revival began in the 1960s, sometimes known as the Maori Renaissance

Maori Renaissance

The term Māori Renaissance refers to the revival in fortunes of the Māori of New Zealand in the latter half of the twentieth century. During this period, the perception of Māori went from being that of a dying race to being politically, culturally artistically and artistically ascendant.The...

Pākehā culture

Pākehā

Pakeha

culture (usually synonymous with New Zealand European
New Zealand European
The term New Zealand European refers to New Zealanders of European descent who identify as New Zealand Europeans rather than some other ethnic group...

) derives mainly from that of the British settlers who colonised New Zealand in the nineteenth century. Although it is recognisably related to British culture, it has always had distinct differences, and these have increased as time has gone on. Things which distinguish Pākehā culture from British culture include higher levels of egalitarianism

Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...

, anti-intellectualism

Anti-intellectualism

Anti-intellectualism is hostility towards and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectual pursuits, usually expressed as the derision of education, philosophy, literature, art, and science, as impractical and contemptible...

, and the idea that most people can do most things if they put their minds to it. Within Pākehā culture are sub-cultures derived from Irish, Italian and other European groups, as well as various non-ethnic subcultures.

It has been claimed that Pākehā do not actually have a culture, or if they do it is not a distinct one. Part of the problem is that high culture

High culture

High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...

is often mistaken for culture in general, and the lack of recognition historically given to New Zealand's artists, writers and composers is seen as evidence of a lack of culture. In contrast, Pākehā pop culture is generally highly visible and often valued. This is observable in the common belief that kiwiana

Kiwiana

Kiwiana are certain items and icons from New Zealand's heritage, especially from around the middle of the 20th century that are seen as representing iconic Kiwi elements...

, a category of kitsch 1950s-style artifacts, is a defining cultural touchstone.

Others argue that belief in the 'absence' of culture in NZ is a symptom of white privilege, allowing members of a dominant group to see their culture as 'normal' or 'default', rather than as a specific position of relative advantage. One of the goals of Pākehā anti-racist groups of the 1980s was to enable Pākehā to see their own culture as such, rather than thinking what they did was normal and what other people did was 'ethnic' and strange.

Māori borrowing from Pākehā culture

Since the early stages of colonisation, Māori have been receptive adopters of aspects of Pākehā culture. From the 1830s many Māori converted to Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

and in the process learned to read and write, to the extent that it has been claimed that in mid nineteenth century New Zealand, Māori were more likely to be literate than Pākehā. A number of religions, such as Pai Marire

Pai Marire

The Pai Mārire movement was a syncretic Māori religion that flourished in New Zealand from about 1863 to 1874. Founded in Taranaki by the prophet Te Ua Haumene, it incorporated Biblical and Māori spiritual elements and promised its followers deliverance from Pākehā domination, providing a...

and Ringatu

Ringatu

The Ringatū church was founded in 1868 by Te Kooti Rikirangi. The symbol for the movement is an upraised hand, or "Ringa Tū" in Māori.Te Kooti was one of a number of Māori detained at the Chatham Islands without trial in relation to the East Coast disturbances of the 1860s...

, arose in the nineteenth century, blending Māori tradition and Christianity.
Similarly Māori traditional chants were put to Victorian music, or written to European tunes, European designs and metal tools adopted by carvers, altering their style and British fabrics and cloth, such as blanketing adopted to form new dress. The horse was adopted, particularly on the East coast. European tools and particularly weapons were frequently decorated with traditional motifs, for example wooden musket and rifle stocks acquired elaborate carving. From the 1820s Maori began building vessels in the European boat building tradition. Many of these activities were conducted in collaboration with Pakeha traders and settlers.

From the 1860s, the adoption of Pākehā culture became less of a free choice as Pākehā began to outnumber Māori. A Pākehā-dominated parliament had free rein to pass legislation affecting Māori, such as the Native Schools

Native schools

In New Zealand, Native Schools were established to provide education for the Māori.Until the 1860s, the government subsidised church schools for the Maori. Early missionary schools were often conducted in the Māori language, which was the predominant language throughout the early part of the 19th...

Act (1867) which required English to be the dominant medium of instruction for Māori children. So, while majority of Māori encouraged their children to learn the English language and Pākehā ways of life in order to function economically and socially, Māori were pushed as well as pulled into changing culture. From the early twentieth century and especially from the 1970s, Māori began to protest against this Eurocentrism

Eurocentrism

Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...

and demanded equal recognition for their own culture.

Many Māori have become successful practitioners of European-derived art forms; indeed many of New Zealand's biggest arts success stories are Māori or part Māori. These include opera singers Inia Te Wiata

Inia Te Wiata

Inia Watene Tauhia Te Wiata was a New Zealand Māori bass-baritone opera singer, film actor and carver.-Early life:Inia Te Wiata was born in Otaki, New Zealand, into the Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga Iwi...

and Kiri Te Kanawa

Kiri Te Kanawa

Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...

, novelists Keri Hulme

Keri Hulme

Keri Hulme is a New Zealand writer, best known for The Bone People, her only novel.-Early life:Hulme was born in Christchurch, in New Zealand's South Island. The daughter of a carpenter and a credit manager, she was the eldest of six children. Her parents were of English, Scottish, and Māori ...

(winner of the Booker Prize) and Alan Duff

Alan Duff

Alan Duff is a New Zealand novelist and newspaper columnist, most well known as the author of Once Were Warriors.- Biography :...

, poet Hone Tuwhare

Hone Tuwhare

Hone Tuwhare was a noted New Zealand poet of Māori ancestry. He is closely associated with The Catlins in the Otago region of New Zealand, where he lived for the latter part of his life.-Early years:...

and painter Ralph Hotere

Ralph Hotere

Hone Papita Raukura "Ralph" Hotere is a New Zealand artist of Māori descent . He was born in Mitimiti, Northland and He is widely regarded as one of New Zealand's most important living artists...

, actors Temuera Morrison

Temuera Morrison

Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand-born actor. He has become one of the country's most famous stars for his roles as the abusive Jake "the Muss" Heke in 1994's Once Were Warriors and as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers in the Star Wars series...

and Cliff Curtis

Cliff Curtis

Clifford Vivian Devon "Cliff" Curtis is a New Zealand actor who has had major roles in film, including The Piano, Whale Rider, and Blow, and most recently has appeared in NBC's television series Trauma. He is also co-owner of independent film production company Whenua Films...

and director Lee Tamahori

Lee Tamahori

Lee Tamahori is a New Zealand filmmaker best known for directing the 1994 film Once Were Warriors and the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.-Upbringing and early career:...

. Māori culture has also provided inspiration to Pakeha artists.

Pākehā borrowing from Māori culture

Since the late nineteenth century, Pākehā have used many of its forms when they required something distinctively New Zealand. The most famous example of this is the haka of the All Blacks

Haka of the All Blacks

The Haka is a traditional Maori war dance from New Zealand. There are thousands of Haka that are performed by various tribes and cultural groups throughout New Zealand. The best known Haka of them all is called "Ka Mate". It has been performed by countless New Zealand teams both locally and...

, a Māori posture dance which is performed before international rugby matches (there are many non-Māori Polynesian

Polynesians

The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...

All Blacks, thus making this a multi-ethnic borrowing). However Pākehā artists such as Colin McCahon

Colin McCahon

Colin John McCahon was a prominent New Zealand artist. During his life he also worked in art galleries and as a university lecturer...

and Gordon Walters

Gordon Walters

Gordon Frederick Walters was a Wellington-born artist and graphic designer who is signiﬁcant to New Zealand culture due to his representation of New Zealand in hisModern Abstract artworks.- Education :...

have also incorporated Māori motifs into their art, and a number of early Pākehā writers used Māori themes and topics in an effort to create an authentically New Zealand literature. The tourist industry has also made heavy use of Māori culture in an effort to present tourists with distinctly New Zealand experiences and items. This may show that Pākehā are not entirely confident that they have a culture of their own, or if they do, that it is interesting or distinct. Many Pākehā in other countries use Māori culture in order to express their New Zealandness, even if they take little interest in Māori while in New Zealand. An example of this is the mass haka

Haka

which takes place in Parliament Square

Parliament Square

Parliament Square is a square outside the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in London. It features a large open green area in the middle, with a group of trees to its west. It contains statues of famous statesmen and is the scene of rallies and protests, as well as being a tourist...

in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

every Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day

. Although Māori are generally involved, most participants are Pākehā.

For many years Pākehā did not consult Māori over the use of their culture, and Māori generally did not protest loudly unless a symbol was being used in a particularly inappropriate way. From the 1970s, Māori began increasingly to object to Pākehā use of their culture, especially when this use was disrespectful or ignorant. One example of this is the 'haka party incident' of 1979. University of Auckland

University of Auckland

The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...

engineering students had a tradition of performing an obscene mock haka at graduation. After pleas from Māori students to discontinue the practice were ignored, a group assaulted the engineering students. They were later charged with assault but defended by Māori elders who testified that the engineers' haka was deeply offensive. Most Pākehā are now more respectful of Māori culture and often consult Māori before using Māori cultural forms. However despite some attempts to copyright cultural intellectual property this does not always occur and forms are still sometimes used in inappropriate ways.

Nonetheless, some Pākehā have been deeply involved in the revival of otherwise lost Māori arts. In the performance of traditional Māori musical instruments Richard Nunns

Richard Nunns

Richard Nunns QSM is a Māori traditional instrumentalist of Pākehā heritage. He is particularly known for playing the Taonga pūoro and his collaboration with fellow Māori instrumentalist Hirini Melbourne. Since Melbourne's death, he is regarded as the world's foremost authority on Māori...

has earned wide respect; as have the contributions made by many academics, for example, Dame Anne Salmond

Anne Salmond

Dame Mary Anne Salmond, DBE, FRSNZ, FBA is a New Zealand historian, anthropologist and writer.-Background:Salmond was born in Wellington in 1945 and grew up in Gisborne, before being sent to board at Solway College in Masterton...

in the area of traditional rituals of encounter, or Mervyn McLean in the analysis of traditional song.

Borrowing from overseas

Both Māori and Pākehā have borrowed cultural forms and styles from other countries, particularly the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

. Most popular New Zealand music

Music of New Zealand

The music of New Zealand is the expression of the culture of New Zealand. New Zealand's music is influenced by the culture of the indigenous Māori and immigrants from the Pacific region, though its musical origins lie predominantly in British colonial history, with contributions from Europe and...

derives from Anglo-American styles, particularly rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, hip-hop, electronic dance music

Electronic dance music

Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...

and related sub-genres. Although there is evidence of a 'New Zealand style', many groups incorporate New Zealand themes into their work, so this style affects each genre differently. More recently however from the start of the 21st century Dub-step, Drum and Bass, Jungle Trance and related sub-genres, derived from England, has been further developed by New Zealanders into a unique sound, exemplified by Salmonella Dub

Salmonella Dub

Salmonella Dub are a Dub/Drum n Bass/Reggae/Roots band from Kaikoura, New Zealand. They were formed in 1991 by Andrew Penman, David Deakins and Mark Tyler...

, Shapeshifter

Shapeshifter (band)

Shapeshifter are a live Drum & Bass act from New Zealand. They have been heralded as a musical phenomenon for their ground breaking live shows and unique blend of heavy soul with drum and bass...

and many others.

The visual arts have also shown the influence of international movements, for example cubism

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

in the early work of Colin McCahon

Colin McCahon

Colin John McCahon was a prominent New Zealand artist. During his life he also worked in art galleries and as a university lecturer...

. In general, the development of international mass media and mass communication has meant New Zealanders have always been aware of developments in other countries; this lends itself to the adoption of new forms and styles from overseas.

Languages

New Zealand has three official language

Official language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...

s: New Zealand English

New Zealand English

, Te Reo Māori (the Māori language), and New Zealand Sign Language

New Zealand Sign Language

New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the Deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006, alongside Te Reo Māori....

. In practice only English is widely used although major efforts have been made in recent years to nurture Te Reo. Numerous other languages are spoken in New Zealand due to its high racial diversity as a multicultural country.

New Zealand English

is close to Australian English

Australian English

Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....

in pronunciation, but has several differences often overlooked by people from outside these countries. The most obvious difference is in vowel pronunciation. The Australian i-sound is like the New Zealand e, and the New Zealand i like the Australian u. New Zealand vowels in general are softer in phonetic terms. Some of these differences show New Zealand English to have more affinity with the English of southern England than Australian English does. Several of the differences also show the influence of Māori speech. The most striking difference from Australian and other forms of English (although shared partly with South African English

South African English

The term South African English is applied to the first-language dialects of English spoken by South Africans, with the L1 English variety spoken by Zimbabweans, Zambians and Namibians, being recognised as offshoots.There is some social and regional variation within South African English...

) is the flattened i of New Zealand English. The New Zealand accent also has some Scottish and Irish influences from the large number of settlers from those places during the 19th century. At the time of the 2006 census, English was spoken by 3,673,623 people: 91.2% of the total population.

Te Reo Māori

An Eastern Polynesian language, Te Reo Māori is closely related to Tahitian and Cook Islands Māori; slightly less closely to Hawaiian and Marquesan; and more distantly to the languages of Western Polynesia, including Samoan, Niuean and Tongan. The language went into decline in terms of use following European colonisation, but since the 1970s mildly successful efforts have been made to reverse this trend. These include the granting of official language status through the Māori Language Act

Maori Language Act

The Māori Language Act 1987 was a piece of legislation passed by the New Zealand Parliament. It gave Te Reo Māori official language status, and gave speakers a right to use it in legal settings such as in court...

1987, a Māori language week

Maori Language Week

Māori Language Week, te wiki o te reo Māori, is a government-sponsored initiative intended to encourage New Zealanders to promote the use of Māori language. Māori, English and New Zealand Sign Language are the official national languages of New Zealand...

and a Māori Television

Maori Television

Māori Television is a New Zealand TV station broadcasting programmes that make a significant contribution to the revitalisation of the Māori language and culture . Funded by the New Zealand Government, the station started broadcasting on 28 March 2004 from a base in Newmarket.Te Reo is the...

channel. The 2006 census found Te Reo to be spoken by 157,110 people, making it the most common language in New Zealand after English.

New Zealand Sign Language

New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the Deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006, alongside Te Reo Māori....

has its roots in British Sign Language (BSL), and may be technically considered a dialect of British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language (BANZSL). There are 62.5% similarities found in British Sign Language and NZSL, compared with 33% of NZSL signs found in American Sign Language. Like other natural sign languages, it was devised by and for Deaf people, with no linguistic connection to a spoken or written language, and it is fully capable of expressing anything a fluent signer wants to say. It uses more lip-patterns in conjunction with hand and facial movement to cue signs than BSL, reflecting New Zealand's history of oralist education of deaf people. Its vocabulary includes Māori concepts such as marae and tangi, and signs for New Zealand placenames. New Zealand Sign Language became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006. A total of 24,090 people in New Zealand use New Zealand sign language.

Other languages

According to the 2006 census, 174 different languages are used in New Zealand (including sign languages). After English and Māori, the most common are Samoan

Samoan language

Samoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...

(85,428 speakers), French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

(53,757), Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

(44,589) and Cantonese, spoken by 44,154 people). The number of French speakers is probably due to the popularity of French as a subject in schools rather than evidence of large scale Francophone

Francophone

The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....

immigration.

Arts

New Zealand has two 'high cultural

High culture

' traditions: Māori and Western. However most cultural material consumed in New Zealand is imported from overseas, particularly from Britain and the United States. Because of this and New Zealand's small population, most New Zealand artists, performers and writers struggle to make a living from their art. Some funding for the arts is provided through a specific arts based government department, Creative New Zealand

Creative New Zealand

The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets and audiences for New Zealand arts domestically and internationally...

. The New Zealand Historic Places Trust

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand...

and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Ministry for Culture and Heritage (New Zealand)

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage is a government agency within the New Zealand government. The current Chief Executive is Lewis D. Holden. The current Minister for Culture and Heritage is Chris Finlayson.-History:...

are national bodies that assist with heritage preservation. Most towns and cities have museums and often art galleries, and the national museum and art gallery is Te Papa

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is the national museum and art gallery of New Zealand, located in Wellington. It is branded and commonly known as Te Papa and Our Place; "Te Papa Tongarewa" is broadly translatable as "the place of treasures of this land".The museum's principles...

('Our Place'), in Wellington.

Visual arts

Pre-European Māori visual art had two main forms: carving and weaving. Both recorded stories and legends and also had religious roles. When Europeans arrived, they brought with them Western artistic traditions. Early Pākehā art focussed mainly on landscape painting, although some of the best known Pākehā artists of the nineteenth century (Charles Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer

Gottfried Lindauer

Gottfried Lindauer, also known as Gottfried or Bohumir Lindaur was a New Zealand artist of Czech descent famous for his portraits. Many prominent Māori chiefs commissioned his work, which accurately records their facial tattoos, clothing, ornaments and weapons. The other artist known for these...

) specialised in Māori portraiture. Some Māori adopted Western styles and a number of nineteenth century meeting houses feature walls painted with portraits and plant designs. From the early twentieth century Apirana Ngata

Apirana Ngata

Sir Apirana Turupa Ngata was a prominent New Zealand politician and lawyer. He has often been described as the foremost Māori politician to have ever served in Parliament, and is also known for his work in promoting and protecting Māori culture and language.-Early life:One of 15 children, Ngata...

and others began a programme of reviving traditional Māori arts, and many new meeting houses were built with traditional carving and tukutuku (woven wall panels) were built. A longstanding concern of Pākehā artists has been the creation of a distinctly New Zealand artistic style. Rita Angus

Rita Angus

Rita Angus was a New Zealand painter born in Hastings. Along with Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston, she is credited as one of the leading figures in twentieth century New Zealand art...

and others used the landscape to try and achieve this while painters such as Gordon Walters

Gordon Walters

used Māori motifs. A number of Māori artists, including Paratene Matchitt

Paratene Matchitt

Paratene Matchitt is a New Zealand sculptor and painter. He is known for combining traditional Māori art forms with those of modernist art. His work also references events from New Zealand history, particularly the Māori prophetic movements of the nineteenth century and most specifically Te...

and Shane Cotton

Shane Cotton

]Shane Cotton is a major New Zealand painter. Born in Upper Hutt with Ngapuhi iwi affiliations, he studied at the Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch, graduating in 1988. He then lectured at Massey University in Palmerston North....

have combined Western modernism with traditional Māori art.

Kapa haka

The term Kapa haka is commonly known in Aotearoa as 'Maori Performing Arts' or the 'cultural dance' of Maori people...

, (kapa meaning 'rank' or 'row' and haka referring to a Māori dance), is the 'cultural dance' component of traditional Māori Performing Arts. Kapa haka is an avenue for Maori people to express their heritage and cultural identity through song and dance. It has undergone a renaissance, with national competitions held yearly and kapa haka used in many state occasions. The haka

Haka

(often mistaken as always being a war dance or ritual challenge) has become part of wider New Zealand culture, being performed by the All Blacks

All Blacks

The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....

as a group ritual before international games and by homesick New Zealanders of all races who want to express their New Zealandness.

Drama

New Zealand drama, both on stage and screen, has been plagued during much of its history by cost and lack of popular interest in New Zealand culture. Despite this Roger Hall

Roger Hall

Roger Leighton Hall, CNZM, QSO is a British born New Zealander actor and playwright, known for his comedies that carry a serious vein of social criticism and feelings of pathos.-Early years:...

and, more recently, Jacob Rajan

Jacob Rajan

Jacob Rajan is a New Zealand playwright and actor. His highly successful plays include the trilogy Krishnan's Dairy, The Candlestick Maker and The Pickle King. Another work was The Dentist's Chair. In 2002, he received the prestigious Laureate Art Award.Rajan studied acting and at Toi Whakaari New...

are two playwrights to achieve considerable popular success. In recent decades New Zealand film

Cinema of New Zealand

New Zealand cinema, can refer to films made by New Zealand-based production companies in New Zealand. However, it may also refer to films made about New Zealand by filmmakers from other countries...

has grown dramatically, with the films Once Were Warriors
Once Were Warriors (film)
Once Were Warriors is a 1994 film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, mostly brought on by family patriarch Jake...

, The Piano
The Piano
The Piano is a 1993 New Zealand drama film about a mute pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater on the west coast of New Zealand. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion, and stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin...

and Heavenly Creatures
Heavenly Creatures
Heavenly Creatures is a 1994 film directed by Peter Jackson, from a screenplay he co-wrote with his wife Fran Walsh, about the notorious 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case in Christchurch, New Zealand. Filmed on location in Christchurch, it features Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet in their screen debuts...

doing well both locally and internationally, and Lord of the Rings trilogy

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...

director Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson

Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...

becoming one of film's most successful directors. New Zealand's most popular comedian was the late Billy T. James

Billy T. James

Billy T James, , born William James Te Wehi Taitoko, was a New Zealand entertainer, comedian and actor. He starred in numerous TV shows and variety programmes and performed on stage and in motion pictures.-Career:...

Music

New Zealand music takes most of the same forms as that of other 'Western' countries, with hip-hop being particularly popular amongst young Māori and Pacific Islanders. New Zealand hip-hop tends to be more humorous and much less violent and sexist than in other countries. There are small but thriving live music and dance party

Dance party

A dance party is a social gathering where dancing is the primary activity. Some dance parties are held in a casual setting and open to the public, such as a rave, or those held in nightclubs and discothèques...

scenes. Classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

has less popular support, but New Zealand has produced several successful composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

s and an internationally famous opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

singer (Kiri Te Kanawa

Kiri Te Kanawa

). There is also a strong indie music scene present in New Zealand.
Reggae is also considered popular within Maori and Pacific Island communities, with bands such as The Herbs, Katchafire, 1814, House Of Shem, Unity Pacific, to name a few, all reflect and express their roots, perspectives and cultural pride and heritage through their music. The collective consciousness of Reggae in Aotearoa New Zealand all embodies the universal message of Love, Peace, and Unity under Jah.

Comedy

In recent decades New Zealand comics have risen in popularity and recognition. In the 1970s and 1980s Billy T James satirized race relations, and McPhail

David McPhail

David Alexander McPhail, ONZM, QSM is a New Zealand comedic actor and writer. He is most famous for the political satire show McPhail and Gadsby in which he co-starred with Jon Gadsby....

& Gadsby

Jon Gadsby

Jon Gadsby QSO is a New Zealand television comedian and writer, most well known for his role in the comedy series McPhail and Gadsby co-starring alongside David McPhail.-Biography:...

lampooned political figures, especially Rob Muldoon. John Clarke

John Clarke (satirist)

John Morrison Clarke is a New Zealand-born Australian comedian, writer, and satirist. He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s...

aka Fred Dagg

Fred Dagg

Fred Dagg is a fictional archetype satirist from New Zealand created and acted on stage, film and television by satirist John Clarke. Clarke graced New Zealand TV screens as Dagg during the mid to late 1970s, "taking the piss" out of the post-pioneering Kiwi bloke and ‘blokesses’.When Clarke first...

joked about rural life. From the 1990s onwards the Naked Samoans

Naked Samoans

The Naked Samoans is a famous New Zealand comedy group made up of Polynesian entertainers, most of whom are Samoan. The group is noted for performing social humour and satire that attracts a broad audience, especially among white New Zealanders, without sacrificing the group's Pacific Island identity...

expressed a Polynesian sense of humour to the nation, and Raybon Kan

Raybon Kan

Raybon Kan is a Masterton, New Zealand-born Han Chinese comedian and newspaper columnist.-Early life and family:Kan's family moved to Wellington, New Zealand soon after his birth, where he began his education at St Mark's Church School and continued through to Wellington College where he was...

is a prominent Asian comic and columnist. The Topp Twins

Topp Twins

The Topp Twins are the folk singing sister comedy duo of New Zealand entertainers Jools and Lynda Topp.They are known for their country music influenced style, live shows and television performances. They are openly lesbian...

are an off-beat comic/country music duo, and Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand-based comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007 on HBO, also called Flight of the Conchords.They were named...

have become famous throughout the English-speaking world for their self-effacing show.

Literature

New Zealand's most successful early writers were expatriates such as Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield

Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...

. From the 1950s, Frank Sargeson

Frank Sargeson

Frank Sargeson was the pen name of Norris Frank Davey. He is considered one of New Zealand's foremost short story writers. Like Katherine Mansfield, Sargeson helped to put New Zealand literature on the world map....

, Janet Frame

Janet Frame

Janet Paterson Frame, ONZ, CBE was a New Zealand author. She wrote eleven novels, four collections of short stories, a book of poetry, an edition of juvenile fiction, and three volumes of autobiography during her lifetime. Since her death, a twelfth novel, a second volume of poetry, and a handful...

and others had (non lucrative) writing careers while still living in New Zealand. Until about the 1980s, the main New Zealand literary form was the short story, but in recent decades novels such as Alan Duff's Once Were Warriors
Once Were Warriors
Once Were Warriors is New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling first novel, published in 1990. It tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and portrays the reality of domestic violence. It was the basis of a 1994 film, directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Rena Owen and Temuera...

, Elizabeth Knox

Elizabeth Knox

Elizabeth Fiona Knox, ONZM, is an award-winning New Zealand writer. She has authored eight novels, an autobiographical trilogy of novellas, a fantasy duet for young adults, and a collection of essays...

's The Vintner's Luck and others have achieved critical and popular success. Māori culture is traditionally oral rather than literate, but in recent years Māori novelists such as Duff, Witi Ihimaera

Witi Ihimaera

Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler, DCNZM, QSM , generally known as Witi Ihimaera , is a New Zealand author, and is often regarded as one of the most prominent Māori writers alive.-Biography:...

and Keri Hulme

Keri Hulme

and poets such as Hone Tuwhare

Hone Tuwhare

have shown their mastery of European-originated forms. Austin Mitchell

Austin Mitchell

Austin Vernon Mitchell is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby since a 1977 by-election.-Education and early life:...

wrote two "Pavlova Paradise

The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise

The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise was a popular book by Austin Mitchell, published by Whitcombe and Tombs , with illustrations by Les Gibbard. It provided a witty, satirical description of life in 1960s New Zealand, and Kiwi culture.Described as "a celebrated vision of New Zealand as...

" books about New Zealand. Barry Crump

Barry Crump

Barry John Crump MBE was a New Zealand author of semi-autobiographical comic novels based on his image as a rugged outdoors man...

was a popular author who embodied and expounded the myth of the Kiwi larrikin and multi-skilled labourer. Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick

Gary McCormick

Gary McCormick is a notable New Zealand poet, radio and television personality, debater and raconteur.McCormick began writing poetry in 1968. His published volumes are Gypsies , Naked and Nameless , Poems for the Red Engine , Poems by Request , Scarlet Letters , Zephyr and Lost at Sea...

are well-known poets. James K Baxter was an eccentric but admired author. Maurice Gee

Maurice Gee

Maurice Gee is a New Zealand novelist.-Awards and honors:Gee was awarded the 1978 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Plumb...

is also a household name for his novels about New Zealand life.

New Zealand cartoonist David Low became famous during World War II for his political satire. Gordon Minhinnick

Gordon Minhinnick

Sir Gordon Edward George Minhinnick KBE was a New Zealand cartoonist.He was born at Torpoint, Cornwall, United Kingdom, educated at Kelly College, Devon, and left for New Zealand in 1921 where he studied architecture for four years...

and Les Gibbard

Les Gibbard

Les Gibbard was a New Zealand born British political cartoonist, journalist, illustrator and animator. As a political cartoonist at The Guardian newspaper for 25 years, Gibbard became the longest-serving artist of his type in the publication’s history...

were also witty political observers. Murray Ball

Murray Ball

Murray Hone Ball ONZM , a New Zealand-born cartoonist, has become known for his Stanley the Palaeolithic Hero , Bruce the Barbarian, All the King's Comrades and the long-running Footrot Flats comic series...

drew a widely popular syndicated daily strip Footrot Flats

Footrot Flats

Footrot Flats was a comic strip written by New Zealand cartoonist Murray Ball. It ran from 1975 until 1994 in newspapers around the world, though the unpublished strips continued to be released in book form until 2000...

, about farm life.

Religion

Pre-European Māori religion

Maori religion

Māori religion is the religious beliefs and practice of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand.-Traditional Māori religion:...

was polytheistic. One of its major features was tapu (sacred and/or forbidden), which was used to maintain the status of chiefs and tohunga

Tohunga

In the culture of the Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, religious or otherwise. Tohunga may include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, builders, teachers and advisors. The equivalent term in Hawaiian culture is kahuna...

(priests) and also for purposes such as conserving resources. Some of the earliest European settlers in New Zealand were Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

missionaries, mostly from the Anglican Church but also from other Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church. From the 1830s onwards, large numbers of Māori converted. Throughout the nineteenth century a number of movements emerged which blended traditional Māori beliefs with Christianity. These included Pai Marire

Pai Marire

, Ringatu

Ringatu

, and in the early twentieth century, Ratana

Ratana

The Rātana movement is a Māori religion and pan-tribal political movement founded by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana in early 20th century New Zealand...

. They typically centred on a prophet-leader. These churches continue to attract many followers; according to the 2006 census, 50,565 people are Ratana believers, and another 16,419 are Ringatu. 1,689 people stated that they followed Māori religion. Many Māori members of mainstream churches, and those with no particular religion, continue to believe in tapu, particularly where the dead are concerned, although not to the same extent as their ancestors.

Pākehā have become steadily less religious over the course of the twentieth century. In the 1920s there was still a reasonably high level of sectarianism

Sectarianism

Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...

and anti-Catholic prejudice, but this has since died down and the major churches generally co-operate with each other. The churches and religious lobby groups have little political influence where Pākehā are concerned. The vast majority of religious Pākehā are Christian, but a small number follow non-Christian religions, particularly Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, and a larger number have a vague belief in new age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

ideas such as the healing power of crystals.

Pacific Islanders in New Zealand have significantly higher rates of both nominal Christianity and church-going than other New Zealanders. There are a number of Pacific Island Christian churches in New Zealand, Other non-Pākehā migrants have brought with them a range of religions including Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

and Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

, although many are Christian or have no religion.

The 2006 census found that 2,136,258 New Zealanders identify as Christian. The most followed denomination is Anglican (554,925), followed by Catholic (507,771) and Presbyterian (385,350). The most commonly practiced non-Christian religion was Hinduism, with 63,540 followers, followed by Buddhism (52,158) and Islam (35,858). A total of 1,297,104 New Zealanders have no religion.

Māori hierarchies

Māori society has traditionally been one based on rank, which derived from ancestry (whakapapa

Whakapapa

Whakapapa , or genealogy, is a fundamental principle that permeates the whole of Māori culture. However, it is more than just a genealogical 'device'...

). Present-day Māori society is far less hierarchical than it traditionally was, although it is still stratified by Pākehā standards. A disproportionate number of Māori MPs

Maori seats

In New Zealand politics, Māori electorates, colloquially also called Māori seats, are a special category of electorate that gives reserved positions to representatives of Māori in the New Zealand Parliament...

come from chiefly families, for example. However, a number of Māori not born into the chiefly families have achieved positions of considerable mana

Mana

within their communities by virtue of their achievements or learning.

The 'classless society'

Until about the 1980s it was often claimed that New Zealand was a 'classless society

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

'. The evidence for this was the relatively small range of wealth (that is, the wealthiest did not earn hugely more than the poorest earners), lack of deference to authority figures, high levels of class mobility, a high standard of working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

living compared to Britain, progressive labour laws which protected workers and encouraged unionism, and a welfare state

Welfare state

A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...

which was developed in New Zealand before most other countries.

New Zealanders' egalitarianism

Egalitarianism

has been criticised as discouraging and denigrating ambition and individual achievement and success. New Zealanders tend to value modesty and distrust those who talk about their own merits. They especially dislike anyone who seems to consider themselves better than others even if the person in question is demonstrably more talented or successful than others. This attitude can manifest itself in the tall poppy syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome

Tall poppy syndrome is a pejorative term primarily used in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other Anglosphere nations to describe a social phenomenon in which people of genuine merit are resented, attacked, cut down, or criticised because their talents or achievements elevate them above...

, which describes the 'cutting down' of anyone thought to have risen above the general mass of people.

It has been argued that in New Zealand ethnicity takes the place of class, with Māori and other Polynesians earning less, having a lower standard of living and less education, and working in lower status jobs than Pākehā.

New Zealand's claims to be a classless society were dealt a fatal blow in the 1980s and 1990s by the economic reforms of the fourth Labour government

Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand

The Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 26 July 1984 to 2 November 1990. It enacted major social and economic reforms, including reformation of the tax system. The economic reforms were known as Rogernomics after Finance Minister Roger Douglas...

and its successor, the fourth National government

Fourth National Government of New Zealand

The Fourth National Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 2 November 1990 to 27 November 1999. Following in the footsteps of the previous Labour government, the fourth National government embarked on an extensive programme of spending cuts...

. A cultural shift also took place due to the economic and social impact of international capital, commerce and advertising. New Zealanders were exposed to a previously unknown array of consumer goods and franchises. Aided by overseas programming, commercial radio and TV stations enjoyed rapid growth. Local manufacturing suffered from cheap imports, with many jobs lost. These reforms led to a dramatic increase in the gap between the richest and poorest New Zealanders, and an increase in the numbers living in poverty.

Travel

It is very common for New Zealanders to travel or live overseas for extended periods of time, often on working holidays. These are usually referred to as the 'OE' or 'overseas experience', and are most commonly taken by people in their 20s. The three most common destinations are Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe, although recently trips to Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan to teach English have become increasingly popular. The east coast of Australia and London both have sizeable expatriate

Expatriate

An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

New Zealand communities.

Unlike the British gap year

Gap year

An expression or phrase that is associated with taking time out to travel in between life stages. It is also known as sabbatical, time off and time out that refers to a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake non curricular activities, such as travel or...

, the OE to Europe is usually self-funded, and tends to occur a few years after university graduation, when the traveller has saved up enough for airfares and living expenses. The length of the visit can range from a few months to the remainder of the visitor's life; since many New Zealanders have British ancestry or dual citizenship (sometimes as a result of their parents' OE), the restrictions on working in Britain do not apply to a substantial percentage of them.

Working holidays in Asia are more likely to occur shortly after graduation, and many agencies specifically target graduates for these trips. Because Australia is relatively close to New Zealand and has no restrictions on New Zealanders working there, the New Zealanders working in Australia are more diverse than those in other countries, with a significantly higher proportion of Māori and working class people.

Since the signing of the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement

Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement

The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement is an informal agreement between Australia and New Zealand to allow for the free movement of citizens of one nation to the other.- Treaty history :...

in 1973, New Zealanders have had the right to live and work in Australia on equal terms with Australian citizens. Until the 1970s New Zealanders had similar rights in relation to Britain. Changes to British immigration law in this period required New Zealanders to obtain visas in order to work in Britain or live there for extended periods, unless they had recent British ancestry.

New Zealand has a number of reciprocal working holiday agreements, allowing people in their 20s to live and work overseas, usually for up to a year. Such agreements are in place with: Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, Malaysia, Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

The kiwi male

The stereotypical New Zealand male is essentially a pioneer type: he is rural, unintellectual, strong, unemotional, democratic, has little time for high culture, good with animals (particularly horses) and machines, and is able to turn his hand to nearly anything. This type of man is often assumed to be a unique product of New Zealand's colonial period but he shares many similarities with the stereotypical American frontiersman and Australian bushman. New Zealand men are supposed to still have many of these qualities, even though most New Zealanders have lived in urban areas since the late nineteenth century. This has not prevented New Zealanders seeing themselves (and being seen) as essentially country people and good at the tasks which country life requires.

The hard man: New Zealand men have often been stereotyped as strong, unemotional and prone to violence. For many years this was seen as a good thing, and was best embodied by All Black Colin Meads

Colin Meads

Sir Colin Earl Meads, KNZM, MBE , is a former New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played 55 test matches , most frequently in the lock forward position, for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks, from 1957 until 1971.Meads is widely considered one of the greatest players in history...

. Voted 'New Zealand player of the century' by New Zealand Rugby Monthly magazine, Meads was the second All Black to be sent off the field, and once played a match with a broken arm. Although he was known to assault other players during games, this was generally approved of as 'enforcement' of the 'spirit of the game'. He was also a supporter of sporting contact with apartheid South Africa. In recent decades the macho attitude has been both criticised and reviled as dangerous both to men who embody it and those around them. It has been blamed for New Zealand's culture of heavy drinking and its high male suicide rate. However it still has its supporters, with some commentators claiming that the All Blacks do not have enough 'mongrel'.

Anti-intellectualism

Unlike many European countries, but in common with other 'Anglo' countries such as Britain, the United States and Australia, New Zealanders do not have a particularly high regard for intellectual activity, particularly if it is more theoretical than practical. This is linked with the idea of 'kiwi ingenuity' (see above), which supposes that all problems are better solved by seeing what works than by applying a theory. This distrust of theory manifested itself in social policy of the early and mid twentieth century, which historian Michael Bassett

Michael Bassett

Michael Edward Rainton Bassett, QSO is a former Labour Party member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and cabinet minister in the reformist fourth Labour government...

described as 'socialism without doctrines': although the policies of the first Labour

First Labour Government of New Zealand

The First Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand from 1935 to 1949. It set the tone of New Zealand's economic and welfare policies until the 1980s, establishing a welfare state, a system of Keynesian economic management, and high levels of state intervention...

and other governments pursued traditionally socialist goals, they were not based on any coherent theory. A major break with this tradition came in the 1980s when the fourth Labour

Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand

and fourth National

Fourth National Government of New Zealand

governments enacted a series of reforms based on free market

Free market

A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...

ideology. This reinforced many New Zealanders' distrust of intellectual theory, as many consider that the reforms increased poverty and inequality in New Zealand. Despite the prevailing mood of anti-intellectualism, New Zealand has reasonably high rates of participation in tertiary education

Tertiary education

Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...

and has produced a number of internationally renowned scholars and scientists, including Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics...

, J.G.A. Pocock

J.G.A. Pocock

John Greville Agard Pocock , as a writer known as J. G. A. Pocock, is a historian noted for his trenchant studies of republicanism in the early modern period , for his treatment of Edward Gibbon and his contemporaries as historians of Enlightenment, and, in historical method, for his contributions...

and Alan MacDiarmid

Alan MacDiarmid

Alan Graham MacDiarmid ONZ was a chemist, and one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000.-Early life:He was born in Masterton, New Zealand as one of five children - three brothers and two sisters...

. It should be noted that both Rutherford and Pocock spent most of their professional lives in Britain. For many years this was a common occurrence, and a consequence both of New Zealanders' attitudes and the low population which made it hard to support major research.

Attribution

Because New Zealanders often have to relocate to achieve worldwide fame and fortune, New Zealanders are keen to claim famous people as being New Zealanders, however short their residency in New Zealand might have been. While people born in New Zealand are certainly identified as New Zealanders, those who attended a New Zealand school or resided in New Zealand also qualify, irrespective of national origin. This sometimes leads to famous people and innovations being identified as coming from both New Zealand and another country—such as the pop group Crowded House

Crowded House

Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...

, the race horse Phar Lap

Phar Lap

Phar Lap was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse whose achievements captured the public's imagination during the early years of the Great Depression. Foaled in New Zealand, he was trained and raced in Australia. Phar Lap dominated Australian racing during a distinguished career, winning a Melbourne...

and the actor Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe

Russell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...

, all of whom have been associated with Australia and New Zealand.

Social conservatism and progressiveness

New Zealand social policy has tended to oscillate between high levels of innovation and progressiveness and equally high levels of conservatism. Social reforms pioneered by New Zealand include women's suffrage

Women's suffrage in New Zealand

Women's suffrage in New Zealand was an important political issue in the late 19th century. Of countries presently independent, New Zealand was the first to give women the vote in modern times....

, the welfare state

Welfare state

, and respect for indigenous peoples (through the Treaty of Waitangi

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....

and the Waitangi Tribunal

Waitangi Tribunal

The Waitangi Tribunal is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975...

). Having led the (non-communist) world in economic regulation from the 1930s, in the 1980s and 1990s the reforms of the Labour Government

Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand

led the world in economic de-regulation. New Zealand was the first country to have an openly transsexual mayor, and later member of parliament, Georgina Beyer

Georgina Beyer

Georgina Beyer was the world's first openly transsexual mayor, as well as the world's first openly transsexual Member of Parliament, and from 27 November 1999 until 14 February 2007 was an MP for the Labour Party in New Zealand.-Early life:Georgina Bertrand was born and assigned male at birth, and...

.

In contrast to this, New Zealand has a history of some very conservative social policies. Most notably, from World War One until 1967 pubs were required by law to close at 6pm. http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealandInBrief/SportsAndLeisure/1/ENZ-Resources/Standard/5/en Until the 1980s most shops were banned from opening on weekends, and until 1999 alcohol could not be sold on Sundays.

In a rare occurrence, the 1981 Springbok Tour

1981 Springbok Tour

The 1981 South African rugby union tour of New Zealand was a controversial tour of New Zealand by the South Africa national rugby union team, known as "the Springboks"...

saw the two extremes very publicly clash with each other on a nationwide scale. http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/impact-of-the-tour

Attitudes to authority

As in most countries, many in New Zealand distrust politicians. This was particularly the case from the 1970s to the 1990s. During this period governments were seen as being autocratic and unresponsive to the will of the people. Prime Minister

Prime Minister of New Zealand

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...

Robert Muldoon

Sir Robert David "Rob" Muldoon, GCMG, CH served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1975 to 1984, as leader of the governing National Party. Muldoon had been a prominent member of the National party and MP for the Tamaki electorate for some years prior to becoming leader of the party...

(1975–84), Finance Minister Ruth Richardson

Ruth Richardson

Ruth Richardson served as New Zealand's Minister of Finance from 1990 to 1993, and is known for her strong pursuit of free-market economic reforms .-Early life:...

(1990–93) and many members of the Fourth Labour Government

Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand

(1984–1990) were particularly disliked. This, and two elections in which one party lost the popular vote but still won the election, led New Zealanders to reform the electoral system

Electoral reform in New Zealand

Electoral reform in New Zealand has, in recent years, become a political issue as major changes have been made to both Parliamentary and local government electoral systems.- Parliamentary Electoral Reform :...

, changing from First Past the Post to Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), a form of proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

.

Despite this, most New Zealanders display faith in their democracy, with New Zealand being rated the second least corrupt nation in the world. Turnout for parliamentary elections is typically above 80%, which is very high by international standards and occurs despite the absence of any law requiring citizens to vote. However local government elections have much lower turnout figures, with an average of 53% in 2007.

New Zealanders, both those of Pākehā and Māori roots, have also been noted as very individualistic people, who take intrusion very personally, especially when it occurs onto private land (but also sometimes in a wider sense). According to psychologists, this is rooted respectively in the 'Frontier' image of the European settler culture, but also mirrored amongst the Maori, for whom land holds a lot of spiritual value in addition to its commercial use.

Attitudes to multiculturalism

New Zealand has for most of its modern history been an isolated bi-cultural society. In recent decades an increasing number of immigrants has changed the demographic spectra. In the larger cities this change has occurred suddenly and dramatically. There has been an increasing awareness of multiculturalism in New Zealand in all areas of society and also in politics. New Zealand's race relations has been a controversial topic in recent times. The political party New Zealand First

New Zealand First

New Zealand First is a political party in New Zealand that was founded in 1993, following party founder Winston Peters' resignation from the National Party in 1992...

has been associated with an anti immigration policy. The Office of the Race Relations Conciliator

New Zealand Human Rights Commission

The Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution in New Zealand. It is funded through the Ministry of Justice, but operates independently of the New Zealand Government...

was established by the Race Relations Act in 1971 for the purposes of "promoting positive race relations and addressing complaints of discrimination on grounds of race, colour, and ethnic or national origin", and was merged with the Human Rights Commission in January 2002.

Māori cuisine

Pre-European Māori cuisine was derived from that of tropical Polynesia

Polynesia

, adapted for New Zealand's colder climate. Key ingredients included kūmara

Sweet potato

The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...

(sweet potato), fern root, taro

Taro

Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...

, birds and fish. Food was cooked in hāngi

Hangi

Hāngi is a traditional New Zealand Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven still used for special occasions.To "lay a hāngi" or "put down a hāngi" involves digging a pit in the ground, heating stones in the pit with a large fire, placing baskets of food on top of the...

(earth ovens), roasted and, in geothermal areas, boiled or steamed using natural hot springs and pools. Various means of preserving birds and other foods were also employed. Māori were one of the few peoples to have no form of alcoholic beverage

Alcoholic beverage

An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...

. Following the arrival of British settlers, Māori adopted many of their foods, especially pork and potatoes, the latter of which transformed the Māori agricultural economy. Many traditional food sources became scarce as introduced predators dramatically reduced bird populations, and forests were cleared for farming and timber. Traditional seafoods such as toheroa

Paphies ventricosa

Paphies ventricosa, or toheroa in the Māori language, is a large bivalve mollusc of the family Mesodesmatidae, endemic to New Zealand. It is found in both the North and South Islands, but the main habitat is the west coast of the North Island...

and whitebait

Whitebait

Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between 25 and 50 millimetres long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along the coast, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught with fine meshed fishing nets...

were over-harvested. Present day Māori cuisine is a mixture of Māori tradition, old fashioned English cookery, and contemporary dishes.

Pākehā cuisine

The majority of Pākehā are of British descent, and so it is not surprising that Pākehā cuisine owes much (good and bad) to British cuisine

British cuisine

English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India...

. Nineteenth century British settlers in New Zealand tried as much as possible to reproduce the foods of their homeland. A major difference between British and Pākehā food was that meat was much more readily available to all social classes in New Zealand. A highly carnivorous diet remains a part of Pākehā culture, although red meat consumption has dropped in the last few decades. Like the British, Pākehā have traditionally been very fond of sweet foods, and the best of traditional Pākehā cooking consists of cakes, scones, muffins and desserts. In recent decades Pākehā have discovered 'ethnic' food, and a 'foodie

Foodie

Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook.- Distinguished from gourmet :...

' culture has emerged. Most Pākehā food is not significantly different from modern British cuisine, although New Zealand chefs such as Peter Gordon

Peter Gordon (chef)

Peter Gordon ONZM is a New Zealand-born, London-based chef.Born in the coastal town of Wanganui, New Zealand, he moved to Melbourne, Australia, in 1981 where he worked for five years before travelling through Asia for a year, and then returned to New Zealand. He moved to London in 1989 where he...

played a major part in the creation of fusion cuisine

Fusion cuisine

Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...

Other cuisines

New Zealanders increasingly come from many ethnic backgrounds, and most immigrants to New Zealand have tried to reproduce their native cuisines or national dishes in New Zealand. Ethnic restaurants have served as community meeting places and have also given other New Zealanders a chance to try different cuisines.

External links

Kiwi Ingenuity
Kiwiana.org.nz
Research in New Zealand Performing Arts – A free online research journal that discusses New Zealand music and related arts.
New Zealand Cultural Events and Organisations

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Māori culture

Pākehā culture

Māori borrowing from Pākehā culture

Pākehā borrowing from Māori culture

Borrowing from overseas

Languages

New Zealand English

Te Reo Māori

New Zealand Sign Language

Other languages

Arts

Visual arts

Kapa haka

Drama

Music

Comedy

Literature

Religion

Māori hierarchies

The 'classless society'

Travel

The kiwi male

Anti-intellectualism

Attribution

Social conservatism and progressiveness

Attitudes to authority

Attitudes to multiculturalism

Māori cuisine

Pākehā cuisine

Other cuisines

See also

External links