“New Zealand 's Māori culture is an integral part of Kiwi life and adds a unique, dynamic experience for visitors...Find out where to experience Māori culture by choosing your area of interest in the right-hand menu.” (100% Pure New Zealand). Most top search results for “Maori Culture” are for attractions, guided tours, and similar spectacles. This culture, which has persisted for nearly a millennia, is gradually withering into little more than a side show attraction. Rather than scholarly journals, articles, and history text, is instead “a growing interest in Māori traditional and cultural practices and what they may bring to business.” (Rigby). This plight of exoticism is not exclusive to the Maori; aboriginal and indigenous societies…show more content… To appreciate the fall of the Maori to appropriation, one must understand their origins. Most scholars agree Māori arrived to New Zealand sometime between 1000 and 1300 AD; some evidence suggests an even earlier arrival. Māoris named the new land Aotearoa, meaning “Land of the Long White Cloud.”, a fitting name for a promising new land. Māori society was tribal; Each person belonged to a family (whanau), a sub tribe (hapu), and the full tribe (iwi). Perhaps it was their strong tribal ties that allowed the Maori to weather extended conflict, continuing to thrive well before European influence touched the continent. The first European to see New Zealand was a Dutchman called Abel Tasman, who arrived in 1642. Early travelers clashed violently with the natives and were not keen to return. The unpleasant first impression fresh in memory, the land was dubbed 'New Zeland ' after a Dutch province, and left relatively untouched until 1769. It would be the ocean 's bounty that would entice Europeans back to the continent towards the end of the 18th century. First came the sealers, followed by the whalers at the beginning of the 19th century. These sailors began to cut wood from New Zealand for masts and spas, over time settlements began to sprout. Europeans began buying land from the Maori. The white population of New Zealand grew at a tremendous rate; by 1861 it was almost 100,000, and by