Story: Ideas about Māori origins

‘The legend of the voyage to New Zealand’

This romantic oil painting of 1912 shows a fleet of double-hulled, ocean-going canoes hauling ashore in New Zealand from a still lagoon. Images such as this helped to popularise the myth of a Great Fleet for decades.

Using this item

Auckland Art Gallery – Toi o Tāmaki

by Kennett Watkins

Permission of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

K. R. Howe, Ideas about Māori origins – 1920s–2000s: new understandings, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/1596/the-legend-of-the-voyage-to-new-zealand (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by K. R. Howe, published 4 March 2009.