I mean, Homo Sapiens is only “naturally occuring” in Africa. We may have spread to Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas (much) earlier than to NZ.
But if you think of the Maori as a people of Oceanian (more specifically east polynesian) descent, you can absolutely make an argument, that they are a native group spreading in their native territory.
You wouldn’t call a north american native people “not native”, just because they began settling some remote part of Canada nobody had been to before only in 1250 CE. The only difference would be that one is separated by water while the other is not, but “separated by water” loses all meaning in Oceania.
I mean, Homo Sapiens is only “naturally occuring” in Africa. We may have spread to Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas (much) earlier than to NZ.
But if you think of the Maori as a people of Oceanian (more specifically east polynesian) descent, you can absolutely make an argument, that they are a native group spreading in their native territory.
You wouldn’t call a north american native people “not native”, just because they began settling some remote part of Canada nobody had been to before only in 1250 CE. The only difference would be that one is separated by water while the other is not, but “separated by water” loses all meaning in Oceania.
/sigh
*loses
Thx, not my native language and somehow I keep making that same error.