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Story: Ideas about Māori origins

Ideas about Māori origins

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Ideas about Māori origins

The 1926 book Maori symbolism was written by the feminist Ettie Rout. Like other books of the time, it presented ideas about Māori origins that have since been disproved. Rout claimed that Māori headdresses and designs were evidence of links between Egyptian, Greek and Polynesian cultures.

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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Reference: Ettie A. Rout, Maori symbolism. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1926, p. 6.

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How to cite this page

K. R. Howe, Ideas about Māori origins – 1840s–1930s: the Aryan theory, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/document/1751/ideas-about-maori-origins (accessed 4 June 2026).

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