iwi

Iwi are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. groups trace their ancestry to the original Polynesian migrants who, according to tradition, arrived from Hawaiki. Some cluster into larger groupings that are based on (genealogical tradition) and known as (literally "canoes", with reference to the original migration voyages). These super-groupings generally serve symbolic rather than practical functions. In pre-European times, most Māori were allied to relatively small groups in the form of ("sub-tribes") and ("family"). Each contains a number of ; among the of the Ngāti Whātua iwi, for example, are Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei. Māori use the word rohe to describe the territory or boundaries of iwi. In modern-day New Zealand, can exercise significant political power in the management of land and of other assets. For example, the 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlement between the New Zealand Government and Ngāi Tahu, compensated that for various losses of the rights guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840. the tribe has collective assets under management of $1.85 billion. affairs can have a real impact on New Zealand politics and society. A 2004 attempt by some to test in court their ownership of the seabed and foreshore areas polarised public opinion (see New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy). Naming In Māori and in many other Polynesian languages, literally means "bone" derived from Proto-Oceanic *suRi₁ meaning "thorn, splinter, fish bone". Māori may refer to returning home after travelling or living elsewhere as "going back to the bones" — literally to the burial-areas of the ancestors. Māori author Keri Hulme's novel The Bone People (1985) has a title linked directly to the dual meaning of bone and "tribal people".