Did the aborigines of Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand know about each other's existence, before the Europeans came?

score:19

Accepted answer

Probably not. The Wikipedia article for Maori Australians says:

There was no known prehistoric contact between Australian Aboriginal people and New Zealand Māori, although the Māori's Polynesian ancestors were accomplished navigators. The first Māori known to have visited Australia travelled to Sydney in European trading ships from 1795 onwards.

The Encyclopedia of New Zealand implies that after the Maori arrived in New Zealand in the 1200s, they continued exploring the ocean to the north and east of New Zealand, but after several centuries gave up long-distance seafaring:

Shortly after their arrival in New Zealand in the 1200s, Māori continued sailing over open seas, landing as far as the Kermadecs and the Chatham Islands. In 1777, two Māori sailed aboard Captain James Cook’s Resolution . . . They were the first Māori to venture beyond New Zealand’s shores for many hundreds of years.

Upvote:-3

If the Maoris landed in New Zealand 1,200 BC, and the Australian Aboriginals landed in Australia 50,000 years earlier. One would think that the Aboriginals would have travelled to New Zealand first. Because 50,000years is such along time to do so many things such as travelling to other countries. I have herd of myths and legends about a race of people who were present in New Zealand before the Maoris. Nothing is recorded in History about the Maoris to prove such things. So I keep an open mind about history and myths because I am Maori........Chur

Upvote:2

I think the only way Australian Aboriginals could've visited Aotearoa (NZ) in the distant past was by being blown out to sea by a storm and surviving the long drift. in which case they probably would've been just one or two men fishing from a simple dugout off the NSW or Queensland coast. In that scenario a few people may have lived the remainder of their lives in New Zealand but would've left no trace or descendants(if any women were with them) in big enough numbers to establish a settlement. If Polynesians ever landed in Australia I'd think that the Aborigines there would've either killed them or driven them away because they'd easily have the upper hand being well established. Polynesians often went looking for new islands because of overcrowding and would have no interest in trying to co-exist somehow especially with such a very alien culture.

Upvote:27

There are no known pre-European contact between Australian Aboriginals and New Zealand Maori. In fact there are no evidence of any contact between the Indigenous Australians and other Polynesian peoples at all. The Polynesians originated in Taiwan around 3,000 B.C., and quickly swept through Polynesia, arriving at New Zealand around A.D. 1,200. The Aborigines on the other hand arrived in Australia 50,000 years ago.

An important thing to note here is that the Polynesians expanded east by chain hopping through the islands, and then made a downward hook to New Zealand from around Tahiti. That is to say, the path of New Zealand's first Maori settlers did not take them through Australia. Refer to the map below for an illustration.

enter image description here (Click to enlarge - shamelessly stolen from here.)

While Australia is not as far from New Zealand as the latter is from Tahiti, the ancestors of the Maori found a relatively vast virgin land when they reached New Zealand. There would have been no more population pressure to migrate further, as had been the case in the much smaller islands of the Polynesian heartland. Due to their self-sufficiency, and with New Zealand being too isolated to maintain contact with the homeland, the Maori also ceased long range travel altogether.

Another thing to note is that by the time the Polynesians began exploring the Pacific, the early Australians have inhabited their continent for tens of thousand of years. While there are evidence of more recent cultural contact, for example the introduction of the dingo to Australia (perhaps 10,000 to 5,000 years ago), nothing is known about any such relations. Hence, when early Polynesians reached Melanesia, they found it already occupied, and moved along eastward, thereby missing Australia altogether.

The first recorded instance of Maori presence in Australia dates to the 1790s, when some chiefs began visiting Sydney. It was a start of a budding commercial relationship and they befriended Samuel Marsden, an early missionary to New Zealand. They, or other chiefs in subsequent visits, may well have met Aboriginal Australians.

Unfortunately, 2,000 kilometres is no small distance. Europe also lost all contact with Greenland.

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