Traditional narratives of early Aotearoa New Zealand history that emphasise European travel and voyaging but ignore the contemporaneous Māori exploration of the outside world miss an important part of the story. In the few decades before 1840 hundreds and perhaps even thousands of Māori had travelled outside Aotearoa — many to Sydney and elsewhere in Australia and others even further afield. By about 1810, if not slightly earlier, we can say it is highly likely there was a permanent Māori presence outside Aotearoa. Māori understandings and impressions of Europeans were shaped as much by these encounters in distant lands as they were by those that took place on their own shores. 

And these encounters and exchanges reveal important features about the nature of cross-cultural interaction. However much Māori visitors might have been impressed or otherwise by the places they visited, they remained just that – other places, other countries. Conforming to foreign customs as a visitor was sometimes seen as the appropriate or polite thing to do. But despite European expectations to the contrary, this did not connote any intention to abandon tikanga Māori once home. In some cases returning Māori travellers literally changed out of their European clothes as they approached their own homes, lest they should be mocked by their relatives for their strange appearance.

Missionaries and others assumed Māori would be so impressed by what they saw of these ‘superior’ European civilisations they would abandon their own ‘heathen’ practices once back amongst their own people. But the reality was quite different. Like most travellers to far off lands they returned home to resume their normal lives. Often they might return with new goods, and even sometimes new ideas, but hardly any intention to overturn the existing social orders of their own communities. I explored much of this history in my 2015 BWB Text Haerenga: Early Māori Journeys Across the Globe. 

England remained the ultimate travel destination for many Māori. The story of Hongi Hika’s famous 1820 encounter with King George IV is  widely known. But how many people know the tale of how one rangatira from the Kāpiti region went to remarkable lengths to make the same journey?