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Anglican Church In Aotearoa, New Zealand And Polynesia

Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is a church of the Anglican Communion serving New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. The primate of the church, known as the Archbishop of New Zealand, is the Most Revd. Whakahuihui Vercoe. Since 1992, the church (formerly known as the Church of the Province of New Zealand) has consisted of three tikanga or cultural streams: Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia.

Aotearoa

1992 Te Pīhopatanga o Aotearoa, which Vercoe also serves as archbishop, oversees churches for the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand. Aotearoa is made up of five hui amorangi or regional bishoprics:
- Manawa O Te Wheke
- Tairāwhiti
- Tai Tokerau
- Upoko O Te Ika
- Waipounamu

New Zealand

The tikanga of New Zealand, which serves Pakeha in New Zealand, is made up of seven dioceses:
- Auckland
- Christchurch
- Dunedin
- Nelson
- Waiapu
- Waikato
- Wellington

Polynesia

The diocese of Polynesia, headed by Bishop Jabez Leslie Bryce, serves Anglicans in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. Category:Anglican churches Category:Religion in New Zealand Category:Fiji Category:Tonga Category:Samoa Category:Cook Islands

External link


- [http://www.anglican.org.nz The official website of Anglican Church in Aotearoa]

Aotearoa

Aotearoa (pronounced: ) is the Māori language name for New Zealand most widely known and accepted.

Translation

The original derivation of Aotearoa is not known for certain. Ao = cloud, tea = white and roa = long, and it is accordingly most often translated as "The land of the long white cloud". According to oral tradition, the daughter of explorer Kupe saw white on the horizon and called "He ao! He ao!" ("a cloud! a cloud!"). The first land sighted was accordingly named Aotea (White Cloud) and is now commonly known as Great Barrier Island. When a much larger landmass was found beyond Aotea, it was called Aotea Roa (Long Aotea). Thus Aotearoa is a traditional name only of the North Island, though it now commonly refers to the whole country.

Clouds seen from the sea

A possible explanation for the name is derived from seafaring. The first sign of land from a boat is often cloud in the sky above the island. New Zealand's mountain ranges are longer and higher than elsewhere in the South Pacific and so they are particularly good at generating standing waves. The resulting long lenticular clouds are very different from the more usual cumulus clouds seen elsewhere in the region. The sight of these clouds over either of the country's two main islands could easily have led to this name.

Snow-capped mountains

A second possible explanation relates to the snow-capped nature of New Zealand's mountains, notably the long chain of the Southern Alps which forms a backbone to the South Island, but also the North Island Volcanic Plateau. Polynesian travellers, unused to snow, might well have seen these snowy peaks as a long white cloud.

Twilight land

A third explanation is connected with New Zealand's location below the tropics. Polynesian seafarers would have been used to tropical sunsets, in which the sky goes from daylight to night very rapidly, with little twilight. New Zealand, with its more southerly latitudes, would have provided surprisingly long periods of evening twilight to travellers from the tropics, and also surprisingly long summer days. It has been suggested that this long twilight is the actual origin of the term Aotearoa, which therefore would better translate as "long light sky". The presence of the Aurora Australis, and the vivid sunsets, are given as theories for the origin of part of the name for Stewart Island/Rakiura, namely Rakiura meaning "glowing sky".

Usage

Originally Māori used Aotearoa to refer only to the North Island. Te Ika a Māui ("The fish caught by Maui") was another name for the North Island. The larger, but sparsely populated South Island was called Te Wai Pounamu ("The greenstone water") or Te Wāhi Pounamu ("The greenstone place"). As a counterpart to Te Ika a Māui, the South Island is sometimes referred to as Te Waka o Māui (The Canoe of Māui), or Te Waka o Aoraki (The Canoe of Aoraki), depending on one's tribal connections. Most of the South Island is settled by the descendents of Aoraki, after whom the country's largest mountain is named (according to legend, he was turned into the mountain), but the northern end was settled by various northern tribes who favour the Māui version. As far as is known, Māori did not have a commonly-used name for the whole New Zealand archipelago in pre-colonial times. When Abel Tasman reached New Zealand in 1642, he named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land Jacob Le Maire had discovered in 1616 off the coast of Argentina. Staten Landt appeared on Tasman's first maps of New Zealand, but this was changed by Dutch cartographers to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland, some time after Hendrik Brouwer proved the South American land to be an island in 1643. The Latin Nova Zeelandia became Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch. Captain James Cook subsquently called the islands New Zealand. It seems logical he simply applied English usage to the Dutch naming, but it has also been suggested he was possibly confusing Zeeland with the Danish island of Zealand. After the adoption of the name New Zealand by Europeans, the early Māori name for the country as a whole was Niu Tireni, a transliteration of New Zealand. This name is now rarely used as Māori favour using neologisms created from Māori words rather than transliterations from English.

Modern usage

It is almost certain that the use of Aotearoa to refer to the whole of New Zealand is a post-colonial usage and it has been suggested that this usage was initiated by Pakeha (non-Māori). Historians (e.g. Michael King) have theorised that it originated from mistakes in the February 1916 School Journal and was thus propagated in a similar manner to the myths surrounding the Moriori. Nonetheless it has become increasingly popular with Māori in recent times. Aotea is also sometimes encountered, but is in decline. The name Aotearoa is used as an alternative name for New Zealand both by Māori and non-Māori. It has not gained official recognition as a legal alternative name for the country, but its increasing popularity over the last 25 years, and usage in official Māori names, such as the National Library / Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, makes this a possibility. Since the 1990s New Zealand's national anthem God Defend New Zealand[http://www.national-anthems.net/countries/index.php?id=nz#lyrics] has been officially sung bilingually, and as such the use of the term Aotearoa has gained a wider audience.

Popular culture

In 1940 Douglas Lilburn composed one of his most famous orchestral works, the overture Aotearoa, which quickly became one of his most popular compositions, and was played by orchestras both in New Zealand and in Great Britain. This made the term more widely known. The term gained a wider international audience in 1981 with Split Enz's single Six Months in a Leaky Boat, which contained the line: :"Aotearoa, rugged individual, glistens like a pearl at the bottom of the world" Common jokes among Maori nationalists are to say Aotearoa means "land of the wrong white crowd" and that the correct Maori pronunciation is "OUR-tea-roa".

External links


- [http://www.aocafe.com Aotearoa Cafe] category: Maori category: New Zealand culture

New Zealand

New Zealand or Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud, is a country of two large islands and many smaller islands in the south-western Pacific Ocean. New Zealand is notable for its isolation, being separated from Australia on the northwest by the Tasman Sea, some 2,000 km wide. The closest neighbours to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. The population of New Zealand is mostly of European descent, with the indigenous Māori as the largest minority. Non-Māori Polynesian and Asian peoples are also significant minorities, especially in the cities. Officially, Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and is represented in the country by a non-political Governor-General; though the Queen has no real political influence. Political power is held by the Prime Minister who is leader of the Government in the democratically elected Parliament of New Zealand. The monarch's Realm of New Zealand also includes the Cook Islands and Niue, which are entirely self-governing; Tokelau, which is moving towards self-government, and New Zealand's claim in Antarctica.

History

New Zealand is one of the most recently settled major land masses. Polynesian settlers arrived in their waka some time between 800 and 600 years ago to establish the indigenous Māori culture. Settlement of the Chatham Islands to the south-east of New Zealand produced the Moriori people but it is disputed whether they moved there from New Zealand or elsewhere in Polynesia. Most of New Zealand was divided into tribal territories called rohe, resources within which were controlled by an iwi ('tribe'). Usually no two iwi had overlapping rohe. Māori adapted to eating the local marine resources, flora and fauna for food, hunting the giant flightless moa (which soon became extinct), and ate the Polynesian Rat and kumara (sweet potato), which they introduced to the country. The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were led by Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sailed up the west coast of the South and North islands in 1642. He named it Staten Landt, believing it to be part of the land Jacob Le Maire had discovered in 1616 off the coast of Chile. Staten Landt appeared on Tasman's first maps of New Zealand, but this was changed by Dutch cartographers to Nova Zeelandia, after the Dutch province of Zeeland, some time after Hendrik Brouwer proved the South American land to be an island in 1643. The Latin Nova Zeelandia became Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch. Lieutenant James Cook subsequently called the archipelago New Zealand, although the names he chose for the North and South islands were rejected, and the main three islands became known as North, Middle and South, with the Middle Island being later called the South Island. Cook began extensive surveys of the islands in 1769, leading to European whaling expeditions and eventually significant European colonisation. From as early as the 1780s, Māori had encounters with European sealers and whalers. Acquisition of muskets by those iwi in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori tribes and there was a temporary but intense period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, that only ceased when all iwi were so armed. Concern about the exploitation of Māori by Europeans, Church Missionary Society lobbying and French interest in the region led the British to annex New Zealand by Royal Proclamation in January 1840. To legitimise the British annexation, Lieutenant Governor William Hobson had been dispatched in 1839; he hurriedly negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with northern iwi on his arrival. The Treaty was signed in February, and in recent years it has come to be seen as the founding document of New Zealand. The Māori translation of the treaty promised the Māori tribes "tino rangatiratanga" would be preserved in return for cedeing kawanatanga, which the English versions translates as "chieftainship" for "sovereignty"; the real meanings are now disputed. Disputes over land sales and sovereignty caused the New Zealand land wars which took place between 1845 and 1872. In 1975 the Treaty of Waitangi Act established the Waitangi Tribunal, charged with hearing claims of Crown violations of the Treaty of Waitangi dating back to 1840. Some Māori tribes and the Moriori never signed the treaty. Although New Zealand was initially administered as a part of the Australian colony of New South Wales, it became a colony in its own right in 1841. European settlement progressed more rapidly than anyone anticipated, and settlers soon outnumbered Māori. Self-government was granted to the settler population in 1852. The first capital of New Zealand was Kororareka (known today as Russell) but shortly afterwards moved to Auckland. There were political concerns following the discovery of gold in Central Otago in 1861 that the South Island would form a separate colony. So in 1865 the capital was offically moved to the more central city of Wellington. New Zealand was involved in a Constitutional Convention in March 1891 in Sydney, New South Wales, along with the then-colonies of Australia. This was to consider a potential constitution for the proposed federation between the then-British Colonies of Australasia. New Zealand lost interest in joining Australia in a federation following this convention. New Zealand became an independent dominion on 26 September 1907 by royal proclamation. Full independence was granted by the United Kingdom Parliament with the Statute of Westminster in 1931; it was taken up upon the Statute's adoption by the New Zealand Parliament in 1947. Since then New Zealand has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.

Politics

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. Under the New Zealand Royal Titles Act (1953), Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of New Zealand and is represented as head of state by the Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright. The New Zealand Parliament has only one chamber, the House of Representatives which usually seats 120 members of Parliament. Parliamentary elections are every three years under a form of proportional representation called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). The 2005 General Election created an 'overhang' of one extra seat (occupied by the Māori Party), due to that party winning more seats in constituencies than its proportional entitlement. There is no single written constitution; however, the Constitution Act (1986) is the principal formal statement of New Zealand's constitutional structure. The Governor-General has the power to appoint and dismiss Prime Ministers and to dissolve Parliament. The Governor-General also chairs the Executive Council which is a formal committee consisting of all ministers of the Crown. Members of the Executive Council are required to be members of Parliament, and most are also in Cabinet. Cabinet is the most senior policy-making body and is led by the Prime Minister who is also the Parliamentary leader of the governing party or coalition. The current Prime Minister is Helen Clark of the Labour Party. She has served two complete terms as Prime Minister and has begun her third. On 17 October 2005 she announced that she had come to a complex arrangement that guaranteed the support of enough parties for her Labour-led coalition to govern. The core of the coalition is a cabinet consisting of Labour Party ministers and Jim Anderton, the Progressive Party's only MP. In addition to the parties represented in cabinet the leaders of New Zealand First and United Future are to be appointed as Ministers outside Cabinet. An arrangement of this kind has never been attempted before in New Zealand. A further arrangement has been made with the Green Party, which has given a commitment not to vote against the government on confidence and supply. This commitment assures the government of a majority of seven MPs on confidence. The Leader of the Opposition is National Party leader Don Brash who was formerly Governor of the Reserve Bank. Also in opposition are the Māori Party and ACT New Zealand. The highest court in New Zealand is the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The Supreme Court was established in 2004 following the passage of the Supreme Court Act in 2003. The Act abolished the option to appeal Court of Appeal rulings to the Privy Council in London. The current Chief Justice is Dame Sian Elias. New Zealand's judicary also has a High Court which deals with serious criminal offences and civil matters, and a Court of Appeal, as well as subordinate courts.

Foreign relations and military

New Zealand maintains a strong profile on environmental protection, human rights and free trade, particularly for agriculture. New Zealand is a member of the following geo-political organisations: APEC, Commonwealth of Nations, OECD and the United Nations. It has signed up to a number of free trade agreements, of which the most important is Closer Economic Relations with Australia. For its first hundred years, New Zealand followed Britain's lead on foreign policy. "Where she goes, we go, where she stands, we stand", said Prime Minister Michael Savage, in declaring war on Germany on 3 September 1939. However, Britain's inability to protect New Zealand from Japanese aggression in World War II led New Zealand to come under the influence of the United States of America for the generation following the war. New Zealand has traditionally also worked closely with Australia, whose foreign policy followed a similar historical trend. In turn, many Pacific Islands such as Western Samoa have looked to New Zealand's lead. The American influence on New Zealand was weakened by the disappointment with the Vietnam War, the nuclear danger presented by the Cold War, the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior by France and by disagreements over environmental and agricultural trade issues. New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In 1984 New Zealand refused nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships access to its ports. In 1986 the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty security obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access. The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament and Arms Control Act of 1987 prohibits the stationing of nuclear weapons on the territory of New Zealand and the entry into New Zealand waters of nuclear armed or propelled ships. This legislation remains a source of contention and the basis for the United States' continued suspension of treaty obligations to New Zealand. In addition to the various wars between Iwi, and between the British, settlers and Iwi, New Zealand has fought in the Boer War, World War I, (sustaining the highest casualties per head of population of any combatant nation), World War II, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency (and committed troops, fighters and bombers to the subsequent confrontation with Indonesia), the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Afghanistan War and has briefly sent a unit of army engineers to help with rebuilding Iraqi infrastructure. The New Zealand military has three branches: the New Zealand Army, the Royal New Zealand Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. New Zealand considers its own national defence needs to be modest; it dismantled its air combat capability in 2001. New Zealand has contributed forces to recent regional and global peacekeeping missions, including those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran/Iraq border, Bougainville and East Timor.

Local government and external territories

East Timor The early European settlers divided New Zealand into provinces. These were abolished in 1876 so that government could be centralised for financial reasons. As a result, New Zealand has no separately represented subnational entities such as provinces, states or territories apart from its local government. The spirit of the provinces however still lives on, and there is fierce rivalry exhibited in sporting and cultural events. Since 1876, local government has administered the various regions of New Zealand. In 1989, the government completely reorganised local government, implementing the current two-tier structure of regional councils and territorial authorities. Today New Zealand has 12 regional councils for the administration of environmental and transport matters and 74 territorial authorities that administer roading, sewerage, building consents, and other local matters. The territorial authorities are 16 city councils, 57 district councils, and the Chatham Islands County Council. Four of the territorial councils (one city and three districts) and the Chatham Islands County Council also perform the functions of a regional council and thus are known as unitary authorities. Territorial authority districts are not subdivisions of regional council districts, and a few of them straddle regional council boundaries. Regions are (asterisks denote unitary authorities): Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne
- , Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui, Wellington, Marlborough
- , Nelson
- , Tasman
- , West Coast, Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands
- . As a major South Pacific nation, New Zealand has a close working relationship with many of the smaller Pacific Island nations, and continues a political association with the Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau. New Zealand operates Scott Base in its Antarctic territory, the Ross Dependency. Other countries also use Christchurch to support their Antarctic bases and the city is sometimes known as the "Gateway to Antarctica".

Geography

Ross Dependency are visible in the centre of the North Island. The Southern Alps and the rain shadow they create are clearly visible on the South Island]] New Zealand comprises two main islands (simply called the North and South Islands in English, or usually Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu in Māori) and a number of smaller islands. The total land area of New Zealand, 268,680 km², is a little less than that of Japan and a little more than the United Kingdom. The country extends more than 1600 km along its main, north-north-east axis. The most significant of the smaller inhabited islands of New Zealand include Stewart Island/Rakiura, Waiheke Island, an island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, Great Barrier Island, east of the Hauraki Gulf and the Chatham Islands, named Rekohu by Moriori. The country has extensive marine resources, with the fifth largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world covering over 4 million km², more than 15 times its land area. The South Island is the largest land mass, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3,754 metres (12,316 feet). There are 18 peaks of more than 3,000 metres in the South Island. The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. The tallest North Island mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 metres), is an active cone volcano. The dramatic and varied landscape of New Zealand has made it a popular location for the production of television programmes and films, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lord of the Rings The usual climate throughout the country is mild, mostly cool temperate to warm temperate, with temperatures rarely falling below 0°C or rising above 30°C. Conditions vary from wet and cold on the West Coast of the South Island to dry and continental in the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury and subtropical in Northland. Of the main cities, Christchurch is the driest, receiving only some 640 millimetres of rain per year. Auckland, the wettest, receives a little less than three times that amount.

Flora and fauna

Northland Because of its long isolation from the rest of the world, and its island biogeography New Zealand has extraordinary flora and fauna. About 80 percent of the New Zealand flora only occurs in New Zealand, including more than 40 endemic genera. The main two types of forest have been dominated by podocarps including the giant kauri and southern beech. The remaining vegetation types in New Zealand are grassland of grass and tussock, usually associated with the subalpine areas, and the low shrublands between grasslands and forests. Until the arrival of the first humans, 80% of the land was forested and, barring two species of bat, there were no non-marine mammals at all. Instead, New Zealand's forests were inhabited by a diverse range of birds including the flightless Moa which is now extinct, the Kiwi, Kakapo, and Takahē which are all endangered due to human actions. Unique birds capable of flight include the Haast's eagle which was the world's largest bird of prey before it became extinct and the large parrots the Kaka and Kea. Reptiles present in New Zealand include skinks and geckos and the Tuatara. There are no snakes but there are many species of insects— including the weta which may grow as large as a House Mouse.

Economy

House Mouse New Zealand has a thriving, modern, developed economy. The country has a high standard of living, ranking 19th on the 2005 Human Development Index and 15th of The Economists 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index. Since 1984 successive governments have engaged in major macroeconomic restructuring, transforming New Zealand from a highly protectionist and regulated economy to a liberalised free-trade economy. During the late 1980s, the New Zealand Government sold a number of major trading enterprises, including its telecommunications company, railway network, a number of radio stations and two financial institutions in a series of asset sales. Although the New Zealand Government continues to own a number of significant businesses, collectively known as State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), they are operated through arms-length shareholding arrangements as stand-alone businesses that are required to operate profitably, just like any privately owned enterprise. Unfortunately, due in part to the sudden transition to a market economy, an economic bubble developed in the New Zealand stock market starting in 1984. This burst in October 1987 and the total value of the market halved within a year (it has still to recover this lost value). The effect of this bubble was a period of poor economic growth which lasted until the mid 90s. It also led the government to begin a programme of massive immigration to boost GDP. However, since 1999 New Zealand has enjoyed a period of relatively strong and sustained growth, and contained inflationary pressures. The current New Zealand government's economic objectives are centred around moving from being ranked among the lower end of the OECD countries to regaining a higher placing again, pursuing free-trade agreements, "closing the gaps" between ethnic groups, and building a "knowledge economy." In 2004 it began discussing free trade with China, one of the first countries to do so. New Zealand is heavily dependent on trade—particularly in agricultural products—to drive growth, and it has been affected by global economic slowdowns and slumps in commodity prices. Since agricultural exports are highly sensitive to currency values and a large percentage of consumer goods are imported, any changes in the value of the New Zealand dollar has a strong impact on the economy. Its primary export industries are agriculture, horticulture, fishing, forestry and information technology. There are also substantial tourism and export education industries. The film and wine industries are considered to be up-and-coming.

Demographics

New Zealand has a population of about 4.1 million. About 70% of the population are whites of European descent. New Zealanders of Anglo-Celtic ancestry are known as Pākeha - this term is used variously and some Māori use it to refer to all non-Māori New Zealanders. A large proportion of white New Zealanders are of Scottish ancestry. Māori people are the second largest ethnic group (the percentage of the population of full or part-Māori ancestry is 14.7%; those who checked only Māori are 7.9%). Between the 1996 and 2001 censuses, the number of people of Asian origin (6.6%) overtook the number of people of Pacific Island origin (6.5%) (note that the census allowed multiple ethnic affiliations). Virtually all Māori are of mixed heritage (Māori/Pākeha), but a large portion of them marked themselves as Māori-only on the Census. New Zealand is positive about immigration and is committed to increasing its population by approx 1% per annum. At present migrants from the UK constitute the largest single group (30%) but new migrants are drawn from many nations, increasingly from East Asia. Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand, although nearly 40% of the population has no religious affiliation. The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholicism and Methodism. There are also significant numbers who identify themselves with Pentecostal and Baptist churches and with the Mormon church. The New Zealand-based Ratana church has many adherents among Māori. According to census figures, other significant minority religions include Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.

Culture

IslamNew Zealand has a diverse contemporary culture with influences from British, the Māori,and other European immigrants and most recently Polynesian cultures. There were many people from Scotland amongst the early British settlers and elements of their culture persist; New Zealand is said to have more bagpipe bands than Scotland. Cultural links between New Zealand and the UK are maintained by a common language, sustained migration from the UK and the fact that many young New Zealanders spend time in the UK on their "overseas experience (OE)". Pre-European contact Māori culture had no metal tools, relying on stone and wood. Modern Māori do not live a traditional lifestyle. Elements of Māori culture survive and the Government actively promotes it to all New Zealanders. Use of the Māori language (Te Reo Māori) as a living, community language remained only in a few remote areas in the post war years but it is currently going through a renaissance; with generous state support for Māori language medium schools and a Māori language television channel. New Zealand's landscape has appeared in a number of television programmes and films. In particular, the television series Hercules and Xena were filmed around Auckland, and the film Heavenly Creatures in Christchurch. The television series The Tribe is set and filmed in New Zealand as well. Director Peter Jackson shot the epic The Lord of the Rings trilogy in various locations around the country, taking advantage of the spectacular and relatively unspoiled landscapes, and Mount Taranaki was used as a stand-in for Mount Fuji in The Last Samurai. The latest of such major international films to be released are King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Sport

New Zealand's most popular sports are rugby union, cricket, netball, lawn bowling, soccer (the most popular sport amongst children) and rugby league. Also popular are golf, tennis, cycling and a variety of water sports, particularly sailing, whitewater kayaking, Surf Lifesaving and rowing. In the latter, New Zealand enjoyed an extraordinary Magic 45 minutes when winning four successive gold medals at the 2005 world championships. Snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are also popular. Equestrian sportsmen and sportswomen make their mark in the world (Mark Todd being chosen international "Horseman of the Century"), and all the way down to the juniors at pony club level.

Olympic Games

The country is internationally recognised as achieving extremely well on a medals-to-population ratio at Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. See, for example, New Zealand Olympic medallists and New Zealand at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Rugby

Rugby as a sport is closely linked to New Zealand's national identity. The national rugby team is called the All Blacks and has the best winning record of any national team in the world, including being the inaugural winners of the World Cup in 1987. The style of name has been followed in naming the national team in several other sports. For instance, the nation's basketball team is known as the Tall Blacks. New Zealand is to host the 2011 Rugby Union World Cup. New Zealand's national sporting colours are not the colours of its flag, but are black and white (silver). The silver fern is a national emblem worn by New Zealanders representing their country in sport. The haka—a traditional Māori challenge—is often performed at sporting events. The All Blacks traditionally perform a haka before the start of international matches.

Yachting, America's Cup

New Zealand is one of the leading nations in world yachting, especially open water long distance or around the world races. Round-the-world yachtsman, Sir Peter Blake was something of a national hero before his untimely death at the hands of river pirates while on an environmental exploration trip on the Amazon. In inshore yachting, Auckland hosted the last two America's Cup regattas (2000 and 2003). In 2000, Team New Zealand successfully defended the trophy they had won in 1995 in San Diego, which made them the only team in the history of the Cup to successfully defend a challenge other than a United States team, but in 2003 they lost to a team headed by Ernesto Bertarelli of Switzerland, whose Alinghi syndicate was skippered by Russell Coutts, the former skipper of Team New Zealand. Team New Zealand will compete for the America's Cup at the next regatta in Valencia in 2007. The team manager is Grant Dalton.

Public holidays

Statutory Holidays
(These holidays are legislated by several Acts of Parliament, such as the Holidays Act. New Zealand Statutes can be viewed at [http://www.legislation.govt.nz/browse_vw.asp?content-set=pal_statutes legislation.govt.nz]) There are also Provincial Anniversary Days to celebrate the founding days or landing days of the first colonists of the various colonial provinces. The actual observance of Anniversary days can vary even within each province due to local custom, convenience or the proximity of seasonal events or other holidays. This may differ from the historical observance day, and may be several weeks from the historic date of the events being commemorated. A full list of Anniversary days is listed in the article Holidays in New Zealand.

International rankings


- UN Human Development Index (HDI), 2005: 19th out of 177 behind Norway; United Nations Development Programme (pdf) [http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/pdf/HDR05_complete.pdf]
- Quality of Life Index, 2005: 15th out of 111 behind Ireland; The Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) [http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]
- Environmental Sustainability Index, 2005: 14th (out of 146) behind Finland; Yale University Center for Environmental Law and Policy & Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (pdf) [http://www.yale.edu/esi/ESI2005_Main_Report.pdf]
- Index of Economic Freedom, 2005: 5th= (out of 155) behind Hong Kong; Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal [http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/]
- GDP Ranking, 2005: 25th out of 111 behind Luxembourg; The Economist Intelligence Unit (pdf) [http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]
- Transparency International 2005: 2nd= (out of 159) behind Iceland on its list of least corrupt countries in the world. [http://ww1.transparency.org/cpi/2005/cpi2005_infocus.html#cpi]

See also

Notes

McGlone, S.M. and Wilmshurst, J.M. 1999. Dating initial Māori environmental impact in New Zealand. Quaternary International 59:5 - 16
Ministry for the Environment. 2005. Offshore Options: Managing Environmental Effects in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone. [http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/water/offshore-options-jun05/html/page3.html Introduction]
Allan, H.H. 1982. Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons, Flora of New Zealand Volume I. Botany Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research

External links


- [http://www.teara.govt.nz/ Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand]
- [http://webdirectory.natlib.govt.nz/index.htm Te Puna Web Directory ] - A directory to New Zealand web sites
- [http://www.mch.govt.nz/ Ministry for Culture and Heritage] - includes information on flag, anthems and coat of arms.
- [http://www.govt.nz/ New Zealand Government Portal]
- [http://www.nzte.govt.nz/ New Zealand Trade and Enterprise] - New Zealand's trade and economic development agency.
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/article/New_Zealand Wikitravel] - New Zealand travel guide.
- [http://www.metservice.co.nz/ New Zealand weather]
- [http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/ NZHistory.net.nz New Zealand history website]
- [http://www.stats.govt.nz/ Statistics New Zealand] - Official statistics.
- [http://www.newzealand.com/ Tourism New Zealand]
- [http://www.astronomy.net.nz/ Astronomy in New Zealand] The guide to astronomy in New Zealand
- [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ New Zealand Herald] - New Zealand newspaper online A
Category:Island nations Category:Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Former British colonies Category:Monarchies Category:Oceanic countries Category:Polynesia als:Neuseeland zh-min-nan:Aotearoa ko:뉴질랜드 ms:New Zealand ja:ニュージーランド simple:New Zealand th:ประเทศนิวซีแลนด์

Anglican Communion

; in the center is a cross of St. George recalling the communion's origins in the Church of England. The Greek motto, Ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐλευθερώσει ὑμᾶς ("The truth will set you free") is a quotation from John 8:31.]] The Anglican Communion is a world-wide organization of Anglican Churches. There is no single "Anglican Church" since each national or regional church has full autonomy; as the name suggests, rather, the Anglican Communion is an association of these churches in full communion with each other and particularly with the Church of England, which may be regarded as the "mother church" of the worldwide communion. For membership, see the box at the bottom of this page. As a result, all rites conducted in one member church are to be recognized by the others. Some of these churches are known as Anglican, explicity recognizing the link to England; others prefer a less specific name. Each church has its own doctrine and liturgy, based in most cases on that of the Church of England; and each church has its own legislative process and overall episcopal leadership from a local primate. The Archbishop of Canterbury, religious head of the Church of England, has no formal authority outside that country; but is recognized as a symbolic head for the worldwide communion. Among the other primates, he is primus inter pares, or "first among equals." If the Archbishop of Canterbury is compared with other religious leaders such as the Pope, therefore, it is only because of his prominent figurehead role in the media. Some non-Anglican churches have entered into full communion with the Anglican Communion and are treated as members despite having non-Anglican origins and traditions. There are also a number of Anglican bodies which separated from a member church of the Anglican Communion and are no longer in communion with the Church of England. They are usually known as "continuing churches."

What holds the Communion together?

The Anglican Communion has no official legal existence nor any formal governing structure. (There is an "Anglican Communion Office" in London, under the aegis of the Archbishop of Canterbury; but it serves merely a supporting and organizational role.) Some have asked what holds the communion together. The first attempt at an answer was the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. Proposed by the American Episcopal Church in 1886 and adopted by the Lambeth Conference of 1888, it set out four principles for future Christian unity. Although wider union has not followed, the quadrilateral has been useful within the communion itself. The quadrilateral, according to the wording adopted in Lambeth ([http://anglicansonline.org/basics/Chicago_Lambeth.html]), consists of: # "The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as 'containing all things necessary to salvation', and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith." # "The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith." # "The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself--Baptism and the Supper of the Lord--ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him." # "The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church." This, then, is the theoretical basis for unity. But what holds it together organizationally? In the last few years people have began to refer to four "Instruments of Unity", which are effectively symbols to which all the churches of the communion can feel tied. In order of antiquity, they are:
- The Archbishop of Canterbury (ab origine)
- The Lambeth Conference (first held in 1867)
- The Anglican Consultative Council (first met in 1971)
- The Primates' Meeting (first met in 1979) Since each province is legally independent and free to chart its own course, the stress on these instruments of unity can easily be imagined. In recent years, for example, some Anglicans (particularly in Africa and Asia) have been displeased with the American and Canadian branches, upset by their welcoming attitudes towards homosexuals, and by the confident way the changes have been made — the conservatives condemmed the action as unilateral and called for wider consultation within the communion before such steps were taken. After the North American churches reaffirmed their belief that their actions had been righteous and "prophetic", they were asked to withdraw their delegates from the 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultive Council. They were permitted at the meeting with voice, but no vote. But they have not been expelled or even suspended from the communion; indeed, no church ever has. It is unclear, moreoever, how such an expulsion could ever be carried out, since the communion is such a theoretical construct.

History

Main article: see History of the Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is a relatively recent concept. Ever since the Church of England (which until the 20th century included the Church in Wales) broke from Rome in the reign of Henry VIII, it has thought of itself not as a new foundation but rather as a reformed continuation of the ancient "English church" and a reassertion of that church's rights. As such it was a distinctly local phenomenon. Thus the only members of the present Anglican Communion existing by the late 18th century were the Church of England, its closely-linked sister church, the Church of Ireland (which also broke from Rome under Henry VIII), and the Scottish Episcopal Church, which for parts of the 17th and 18th centuries was partially underground (it was suspected of Jacobite sympathies). However, the enormous expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries of the British Empire brought the church along with it. At first all these colonial churches were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. After the American Revolution, the parishes in the newly independent country found it necessary to break formally from a church whose earthly head was (and remains) the British monarch. Thus they formed their own dioceses and national church, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in a mostly amicable separation. At about the same time, in the colonies which remained linked to the crown, the Church of England began to appoint colonial bishops. In 1787 a bishop of Nova Scotia was appointed with a jurisdiction over all of British North America; in time several more colleagues were appointed to other cities in present-day Canada. In 1814 a bishop of Calcutta was made; in 1824 the first bishop was sent to the West Indies and in 1836 to Australia. By 1840 there were still only ten colonial bishops for the Church of England; but even this small beginning greatly facilitated the growth of Anglicanism around the world. In 1841 a "Colonial Bishoprics Council" was set up and soon many more dioceses were created. In time, it became natural to group these into provinces, and a metropolitan appointed for each province. Although it had at first been somewhat established in many colonies, in 1861 it was ruled that, except where specifically established, the Church of England had just the same legal position as any other church. Thus a colonial bishop and colonial diocese was by nature quite a different thing from their counterparts back home. In time bishops came to be appointed locally rather than from England, and eventually national synods began to pass ecclesiastical legislation independent of England. A crucial step in the development of the modern communion was the idea of the Lambeth Conferences. In 1867, at the suggestion of the Canadian synod, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Thomas Langley, invited a great conference of bishops to meet with him at Lambeth Palace. By inviting the bishops of the Churches of England and Ireland, those of the semi-autonomous colonial churches, and those of the fully autonomous Episcopal Church in the United States of America, he set a precedent that they all could meet together despite the absence of universal legal ties. Some bishops were initially reluctant to attend, fearing that the meeting would declare itself a council with power to legislate for the church; but it agreed to pass only advisory resolutions. These Lambeth Conferences have been held decennially since 1878 (the second such conference), and remain the most visible coming-together of the whole communion.

Recent controversies

Recent disagreements over homosexuality have strained the unity of the communion as well as its relationships with other Christian denominations; see Anglican views of homosexuality.

Relationship with the Roman Catholic Church

Efforts have been underway at least since 1966 to effect a reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church, focusing on theological issues [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/angl-comm-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19660324_paul-vi-ramsey_en.html] and ways "to further the convergence on authority in the Church. Without agreement in this area we shall not reach the full visible unity to which we are both committed." [http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/angl-comm-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19961205_jp-ii-carey_en.html]

Related topics


- Thirty-Nine Articles
- Book of Common Prayer
- Anglican Use
- Anglican Communion Network
- Affirming Catholicism
- Sydney Anglicans

External links


- [http://www.anglicancommunion.org/ Official website]
- [http://anglican.org/church/NoCentral.html Decentralised nature of worldwide Anglicanism]
- [http://www.gshep.org/information/vocabulary.htm Comprehensive Anglican vocabulary]
- [http://www.anglican.tk/ the conservative Classical Anglican Net News website]
- [http://www.anglicanchurchofindia.org Anglican Church of India]
- [http://www.anglicansonline.org/ Anglicans Online] Category:Anglicanism Category:Christian group structuring ja:アングリカン・コミュニオン

Tonga

:See Tonga (disambiguation) for alternative meanings. The Kingdom of Tonga is an archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean, about a third of the way between New Zealand and Hawaii. It lies south of Samoa and east of Fiji. Fiji Fiji

History

Main article: History of Tonga Archaeological evidence shows that the first settlers in Tonga sailed from the Santa Cruz Islands, as part of the original Austronesian-speakers' (Lapita) migration which originated out of S.E. Asia some 6000 years before present. Archaeological dating places Tonga as the oldest known site in Polynesia for the distinctive Lapita ceramic ware, at 2800-2750 years before present. The "Lapita" people lived and sailed, traded, warred, and intermarried in the islands now known as Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji for 1000 years, before more explorers set off to the east to discover the Marquesas, Tahiti, and eventually the rest of the Pacific Ocean islands. For this reason, Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji are described by anthropologists as the cradle of Polynesian culture and civilization. By the 12th century, Tongans, and the Tongan paramount chief, the Tu'i Tonga, were known across the Pacific, from Niue to Tikopia, sparking some historians to refer to a 'Tongan Empire'. A network of interacting navigators, chiefs, and adventurers might be a better term although the empire did have its own dynasties. It could be compared to the Scandinavian kingdoms and the Vikings. In the 15th century and again in the 17th, civil war erupted. It was in this context that the first Europeans arrived, beginning with Dutch explorers Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire in 1616, who called on the northern island of Niuatoputapu, and Abel Tasman, who visited Tongatapu and Ha'apai in 1643. Later noteworthy European visits were by Captain Cook in 1773, 1774, and 1777, the first London missionaries in 1797, and the Wesleyan Methodist Walter Lawry Buller in 1822. Tonga was united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845 by the ambitious young warrior, strategist, and orator Taufa'ahau. He held the chiefly title of Tu'i Kanokupolu, but was baptised with the name King George. In 1875, with the help of missionary Shirley Baker, he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy, at which time he emancipated the 'serfs', enshrined a code of law, land tenure, and freedom of the press, and limited the power of the chiefs. Tonga became a British protected state under a Treaty of Friendship on 18 May 1900, when European settlers and rival Tongan chiefs tried to oust the second king. The Treaty of Friendship and protected state status ended in 1970 under arrangements established prior to her death by the third monarch, Queen Salote. Tonga joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970, and the United Nations in 1999. While exposed to colonial forces, Tonga has never lost indigenous governance, a fact that makes Tonga unique in the Pacific and gives Tongans much pride, as well as confidence in the monarchal system. The British High Commission in Tonga is scheduled to close in 2005. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/21/wtonga21.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/21/ixworld.html]

Politics

Main article: Politics of Tonga Tonga is a monarchy. The reverence for the kingship is likened to that held in prior centuries for the sacred paramount chief, the Tu'i Tonga. Criticism of the monarch is held to be antithetical to Tongan culture and etiquette. A direct descendant of the first monarch, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, his family, some powerful nobles, and a growing non-royal caste of elites live in much wealth, with the rest of the country living in relative poverty. The effects of this disparity are mitigated by three factors: education, medicine, and land tenure. Tonga's education system is free and mandatory for all children up to age twelve, with very nominal fees for secondary education, and foreign-funded scholarships for post-secondary education. Tongans are well-educated, with a 98% literacy rate, and higher education up to and including medical and graduate degrees. Tongans also have universal access to a socialized medicine system. Tongan land is constitutionally protected and cannot be sold to foreigners (although it may be leased). While there is a land shortage on the urbanized main island of Tongatapu (where 60% of the population resides), there is farm land available in the rural islands. The majority of the population engages in some form of subsistence production of food, with approximately half producing almost all of their basic food needs through farming, sea harvesting, and animal husbandry. Women and men have equal access to education and health care, and are fairly equal in employment, but women are discriminated against in land holding, electoral politics, and government ministries. There is a pro-democracy movement in Tonga, which emphasises reforms including better representation in the Parliament for the majority commoners, and better accountability in matters of state. An overthrow of the monarchy itself is not part of the movement and the institution of monarchy continues to hold popular support, even while reforms are advocated. Until recently, the governance issue was generally ignored by the leaders of other countries, but major aid donors and neighbours New Zealand and Australia are now expressing concerns about some Tongan government actions. Following the precedents of Queen Salote, and with numerous international advisors, the government of Tonga under King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV has monetized the economy, internationalized the medical and education system, and enabled access by commoners to increasing forms of material wealth (houses, cars, and other commodities), education, and overseas travel. The government has supported Olympic and other international sports competition, and contributed Peacekeepers to the United Nations (notably to Bougainville). The Tongan government also supported the American 'coalition of the willing' action in Iraq, and a small number of Tongan soldiers were deployed, as part of an American force, to Iraq in late 2004. However, the contingent of 40+ troops returned home on December 17, 2004. [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat_coalition.htm] King Taufa'ahau and his government have made some problematic economic decisions, and are accused of millions of dollars in incompetent spending. The problems have mostly been related to trying to increase national revenues through odd-ball schemes. This has included searching for oil (despite geological reports indicating no possible oil), considering making Tonga a nuclear waste disposal site (an idea floated in the mid-90s by the current crown prince), selling Tongan Protected Persons Passports (which eventually forced Tonga to nationalize the purchasers, sparking ethnicity based concerns within Tonga), registering foreign ships (which proved to be engaged in illegal activities), claiming geo-orbital satellite slots (the revenue from which seems to belong to the Princess Royale, not the state), holding a long-term charter on an unusable Boeing 757 (that was sidelined in Auckland Airport), building an airport hotel and potential casino with an Interpol-accused criminal, and approving a factory for exporting cigarettes to China (against the advice of Tongan medical officials, and decades of health promotion messaging). The King has proved vulnerable to speculators with big promises, and lost several million (reportedly $US26) on a financial advisor who called himself the King's Court Jester. The police have imprisoned pro-democracy leaders, and the government repeatedly confiscated the newspaper The Tongan Times (which was printed in New Zealand and sold in Tonga) because the editor had been vocally critical of the King's mistakes. Notably, the Kele'a, produced specifically to critique the government and printed in Tonga by pro-democracy leader 'Akilisi Pohiva, was not banned during that time. Pohiva however, had been subjected to harassment in the form of frequent lawsuits. Court Jester In mid-2003, the government passed a radical constitutional amendment to "Tonganize" the press, by licensing and limiting freedom of the press, so as to protect the image of the monarchy. The amendment was defended by government and royalists on the basis of traditional cultural values. Licensure criteria include 80% ownership by Tongans living in the country. As of February 2004, those papers denied licenses under the new act included the Taimi 'o Tonga (Tongan Times), the Kele'a and the Matangi Tonga, while those which were permitted licenses were uniformly church based or pro-government. The bill was opposed, in the form of a several-thousand-strong protest march in the capital, a call by the Tu'i Pelehake (a prince, nephew of the King and elected member of parliament) for Australia and other nations to pressure the Tongan government to democratize the electoral system, and a legal writ calling for a judicial investigation of the bill. The latter was supported by some 160 signatories, including seven of the nine elected "People's Representatives". The strong-arm tactics and gaffes have overshadowed the good the now aged king has done in his lifetime, as well as the many beneficial reforms of his popular son and Prime Minister, 'Ulukalala Lavaka 'Ata. The Crown Prince, Tupouto'a, and Pilolevu, the Princess Royale, remained generally silent on the issue. In total, the changes threatened to destabilize the polity, fraction support for the status quo, and place further pressure on the monarchy.

Kings and Queens of Tonga

Geography

Main article: Geography of Tonga Tonga is an archipelago directly south of Western Samoa. Its 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited, are divided into three main groups – Vava'u, Ha'apai, and Tongatapu – and cover an 800-kilometer (500 miles)-long north–south line. The largest island, Tongatapu, on which the capital city of Nuku'alofa is located, covers 257 square kilometers (99 sq mi). Geologically the Tongan islands are of two types: most have a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations; others consist of limestone overlaying a volcanic base. The climate is basically subtropical with a distinct warm period (December–April), during which the temperatures rise above 32 °C (90 °F), and a cooler period (May–November), with temperatures rarely rising above 27 °C (80 °F). The temperature increases from 23 °C to 27 °C (74 °F to 80 °F), and the annual rainfall is from 1700 to 2970 millimeters (67 to 117 in) as one moves from Tongatapu in the south to the more northerly islands closer to the Equator. The mean daily humidity is 80%.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Tonga Tonga's economy is characterized by a large nonmonetary sector and a heavy dependence on remittances from the half of the country's population that lives abroad, chiefly in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Much of the monetary sector of the economy is dominated, if not owned, by the royal family and nobles. This is particularly true of the telecommunications and satellite services. Much of small business, particularly retailing on Tongatapu, is now dominated by recent Chinese immigrants who arrived under a cash-for-passports scheme ended in 1998. The manufacturing sector consists of handicrafts and a few other very smallscale industries, all of which contribute only about 3% of GDP. Commercial business activities also are inconspicuous and, to a large extent, are dominated by the same large trading companies found throughout the South Pacific. In September 1974, the country's first commercial trading bank, the Bank of Tonga, opened. Rural Tongans rely on plantation and subsistence agriculture. Coconuts, vanilla beans, and bananas are the major cash crops. The processing of coconuts into copra and desiccated coconut is the only significant industry. Pigs and poultry are the major types of livestock. Horses are kept for draft purposes, primarily by farmers working their api. More cattle are being raised, and beef imports are declining. Tonga's development plans emphasize a growing private sector, upgrading agricultural productivity, revitalizing the squash and vanilla bean industries, developing tourism, and improving the island's communications and transportation systems. Substantial progress has been made, but much work remains to be done. A small but growing construction sector is developing in response to the inflow of aid monies and remittances from Tongans abroad. The copra industry is plagued by world prices that have been depressed for years. Efforts are being made to discover ways to diversify. One hope is seen in fisheries; tests have shown that sufficient skipjack tuna pass through Tongan waters to support a fishing industry. Another potential development activity is exploitation of forests, which cover 35% of the kingdom's land area but are decreasing as land is cleared. Coconut trees past their prime bearing years also provide a potential source of lumber. The tourist industry is relatively undeveloped; however, the government recognizes that tourism can play a major role in economic development, and efforts are being made to increase this source of revenue. Cruise ships often stop in Nuku'alofa and Vava'u.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Tonga Almost two-thirds of the population of the Kingdom of Tonga live on its main island, Tongatapu. Although an increasing number of Tongans have moved into the only urban and commercial center, Nuku'alofa, where European and indigenous cultural and living patterns have blended, village life and kinship ties continue to be important throughout the country. Everyday life is heavily influenced by Polynesian traditions and especially by the Christian faith; for example, all commerce and entertainment activities cease from midnight Saturday until midnight Sunday, and the constitution declares the Sabbath to be sacred, forever. Tongans, a Polynesian group with a very small mixture of Melanesian, represent more than 98% of the inhabitants. The rest are European, mixed European, and other Pacific Islanders. There also are several hundred Chinese. Primary education between ages 6 and 14 is compulsory and free in state schools. Mission schools provide about 83% of the primary and 90% of the secondary level education. Higher education includes teacher training, nursing and medical training, a small private university, a women's business college, and a number of private agricultural schools. Most higher education is pursued overseas.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Tonga
- Music of Tonga
- Kava culture
- Tupenu

Trivia


- On either his 1773 or 1777 visit, Captain Cook presented a tortoise to the king. This tortoise, known thereafter as Tui Malila, lived to be either 188 or 192 years old. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest animal (kingdom Animalia) on record.
- In 1972, the military of Tonga took over the micronation Republic of Minerva, which had created an artificial island on the Minerva reefs.
- Many Tongans have immigrated to the United States to seek employment and a higher standard of living. U.S. cities with significant Tongan American populations include East Palo Alto, California, Oakland, California, Los Angeles, California, Salt Lake City, Utah, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Euless, Texas (near Dallas).

See also


- Tu’i Tonga Empire
- Communications in Tonga
- Foreign relations of Tonga
- Military of Tonga
- Transportation in Tonga
- William Mariner — accounts of pre-Christian Tonga

External links


- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tn.html CIA World Factbook: Tonga]
- [http://www.lands.gov.to/tiki/tiki-index.php Interactive maps of Tonga]
- [http://www.mapsouthpacific.com/tonga/index.html Map of Tonga]
- [http://www.govt.to/ Official Tongan Government Portal] Category:Monarchies Category:Oceanic countries Category:Polynesia
- zh-min-nan:Tonga ko:통가 ms:Tonga ja:トンガ simple:Tonga th:ประเทศตองกา

Cook Islands



Archbishop of New Zealand

The Archbishop of New Zealand is the head of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia and has under his direction nine dioceses. This position is not to be confused with either the Bishop of New Zealand or the Bishop of Aotearoa. The diocese of New Zealand split in to the seven dioceses on mainland New Zealand (Christchurch, Waiapu, Wellington, Nelson, Dunedin and Waikato), and the remainer of the diocese renamed to the Diocese of Auckland. George Augustus Selwyn was the first Bishop of New Zealand. The Archbishop of New Zealand has no permanent See; instead the Archbishopric is held by a Bishop who takes on the additional title. The incumbent Archbishop is the Most Reverend Whakahuihui Vercoe, known for his controversial views on homosexuality and immigration.

Primates of New Zealand


- George Augustus Selwyn (1841–1869) (Bishop of New Zealand Metropolitan)
- Henry Harper (1867–1890) (Bishop of Christchurch)
- Octavius Hadfield (1890–1893) (Bishop of Wellington and Archbishop of New Zealand)
- William Cowie (1893–1902) (Bishop of Auckland)

Archbishops of New Zealand, 1902-date


- Churchill Julius (1902–1925)
- Alfred Averill (1925–1940)
- Campbell West-Watson (1940–1952)
- Reginald Owen (1952–1961)
- Norman Lesser (1961–1971)
- Allen Johnston (1972–1980)
- Paul Reeves (1980–1985)
- Brian Davis (1985–1997)
- John Paterson (1998–2004) (Presiding Bishop)
- Whakahuihui Vercoe (2004—)

External link


- [http://www.anglican.org.nz The official website of Anglican Church in Aotearoa] Category:Religion in New Zealand New Zealand

Maori

Māori is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and their language. It is also the name of the people and language of the Cook Islands, referred to as Cook Islands Māori. The word māori means "normal" or "ordinary" in the Māori language and denotes mortal beings as distinct from the gods. "Māori" has similarities in some other Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian in which the cognate word maoli means native, indigenous, real or actual. Māori often refer to themselves as tāngata whenua (literally "people of the land") to emphasise their indigenous status.

Māori arrival in New Zealand

It is not precisely known when Māori arrived. Polynesian voyagers are believed to have migrated to what is now New Zealand from eastern Polynesia in the latter part of the 1st millennium. As their descendants adjusted their practices and culture to their new environment, they became the Māori. New Zealand was one of the last Pacific island groups reached by humans. Archaeological evidence suggests there were probably several waves of migration to New Zealand between 800 and 1300. Māori oral history describes their arrival from a place called Hawaiki by large ocean–going canoes (waka). Migration accounts vary among Māori tribes or iwi, whose members can identify with the different waka in their genealogies or whakapapa. According to Sir Peter Buck there were 10 Māori tribes resulting from the Main Fleet but this is not supported by all tribes. Ngapuhi, one of the northern tribes, say their ancestors' journey from Hawaiki was aided by the gods, in that the sun did not set for three days. A possible reason for this claim is that their voyage coincided with the appearance in the sky of the Crab Nebula supernova which for several days was bright enough to be seen in daylight. Contemporary Chinese and Arab astronomers also recorded this event and dated it equivalent to July 1054. There is no credible evidence of human settlement in New Zealand prior to the Māori voyagers. A fringe element claims there was extensive pre–Māori settlement, especially Martin Doutré in his book Ancient Celtic New Zealand, but such claims are universally dismissed as unsubstantiated by mainstream historians and archaeologists.

Possible origins

Recent maternal mitochondrial DNA analysis suggests that Polynesians, including Māori, are genetically linked to indigenous peoples of parts of Southeast Asia including those of Taiwan and the Andaman Islands. Current theory suggests that peoples from these areas made their way into the Pacific over many centuries, passing through Melanesia and moving eastwards, colonizing previously-unsettled islands as far east as what is now French Polynesia, Hawai'i and Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Polynesian seafarers achieved Pacific settlement by making very long canoe voyages, in some cases against the prevailing winds and tides, and their navigation skills were very well developed. There are suggestions that Polynesian voyagers reached the South American mainland and made contact with indigenous South Americans. The sweet potato, known to Māori as "kumara" and introduced to New Zealand by them, is widely grown around the Pacific but originated in the Andes. There is no evidence that Pacific peoples actually settled on the South American mainland or that South American peoples voyaged into the Pacific.

European arrival

European colonisation of New Zealand occurred relatively recently, causing the late New Zealand historian Michael King to state in his book, The Penguin History Of New Zealand, that Māori were "the last major human community on earth untouched and unaffected by the wider world." The early European explorers, including Abel Tasman and James Cook, reported encounters with Māori. These early reports described the Māori as a fierce and proud warrior race. Inter-tribal warfare was a way of life, with the conquered being enslaved or in some cases eaten. From as early as the 1780s Māori had encounters with European sealers and whalers; some even crewed on their ships. There was also a continuous trickle of escaped convicts from Australia and deserters from visiting ships. By 1830 it was estimated that there were as many as 2,000 Pakeha living among the Māori, status varying from slaves through to high ranking advisors, from prisoners to those who abandoned European culture and identified themselves as Māori. Pakeha were valued for their ability to describe European skills and culture and their ability to obtain European items in trade, particularly weaponry. These Europeans were known as Pakeha Māori. When Pomare led a war party against Titore in 1838, among his warriors were 132 Pakeha mercenaries. Frederick Edward Maning, an early settler, wrote two colourful contemporaneous accounts of life at that time which have become classics of New Zealand literature: Old New Zealand and History of the War in the North of New Zealand against the Chief Heke. Governor George Grey learned the language and recorded much of the mythology.

Musket wars

During this period the acquisition of muskets by those tribes in close contact with European visitors destabilised the existing balance of power between Māori tribes, and there was a period of bloody inter-tribal warfare, known as the Musket Wars, during which several tribes were effectively exterminated and others were driven from their traditional territory. European diseases also killed a large but unknown number of Māori during this period. Estimates vary between ten and fifty percent.

Annexation

With increasing European missionary activity and settlement in the 1830s as well as perceived European lawlessness, the British Crown, as a predominant world power, came under pressure to intervene. Ultimately this led to William Hobson being dispatched with instructions to take possession of New Zealand. Before he arrived, Queen Victoria annexed new Zealand by royal proclamation in January 1840. On arrival in February, Hobson negotiated the Treaty of Waitangi with the surrounding northern chiefs. This treaty was subsequently signed by many other Māori chiefs, though by no means all. The treaty made the Māori British subjects in return for a guarantee of property rights and tribal autonomy.

Disputes and decline

In the 1860s, disputes over questionable land purchases and the attempts of Māori in the Waikato to establish a rival British-style system of royalty led to the New Zealand wars. Although these resulted in relatively few deaths, large tracts of tribal land were confiscated by the colonial government. Settlements such as Parihaka in Taranaki are remembered as sites of violent conflict that took place there during that period. With the loss of much of their land, Māori went into a period of decline, and in the late 19th century it was believed that the Māori population would cease to exist as a separate race and be assimilated into the European population.

Revival

The predicted decline did not occur, and population levels recovered. Despite a high degree of intermingling between the Māori and European populations (virtually all Māori are of mixed racial heritage today), Māori were able to retain their cultural identity and in the 1960s and 1970s, Māoridom underwent a cultural revival. No Māori live a traditional pre-European contact lifestyle today. Some commentators express frustration with the "theme-parkisation" of Māori identity with tourist-driven performances and gift shop "art". Others seek to develop a New Zealand identity that incorporates strands of Māori identity. Sympathetic governments and political activism have led to compensation for certain historic instances of unjust confiscation of land and the violation of other property rights. A special court, the Waitangi Tribunal, was established to investigate and make recommendations on such issues. As a result of the compensation paid, Māori now have significant interests in the fishing and forestry industries. Māori language ceased to be used as a living community language (by significant numbers of people) in the post-war years. Generous state funding is assisting with the revival attempt. Māori culture and language is taught in most New Zealand schools, and pre-school kohanga reo or language nests, teach tamariki or young children exclusively in Māori. Māori Television, a government-funded TV station committed to broadcasting primarily in te reo, began broadcasting on March 28, 2004. Māori language has the equivalent status to English in government and law. Māori politicians have seven designated Māori seats in the New Zealand parliament (and may stand in the General seats), and consideration and consultation with Māori are routine requirements for many New Zealand councils and government organisations. Despite significant social and economic advances during the 20th century, Māori still perform negatively in most health and education statistics, labour participation as well as being over-represented in criminal and corrections statistics. In 2001 a dispute arose between Danish toymaker LEGO and several Māori tribal groups fronted by lawyer Maui Solomon, and also several members of an online discussion forum Aotearoa Cafe, over the popular LEGO toy line Bionicle. The product line used many words that were an appropriation of Māori language, imagery and folklore. The dispute was settled amicably. Initially LEGO refused to withdraw the game, saying the names it used were drawn from many cultures, but later agreed that it had taken the names from Māori and agreed to change certain names or spellings to help set the toy line apart from the Māori legends. This, however, did not prevent the many Bionicle users from continuing to use the disputed words, resulting in the popular Bionicle website BZPower coming under a denial-of-service attack for four days by an attacker using the name Kotiate [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56451,00.html?tw=wn_story_related]. Several artistic collectives have been established by Māori tribal groups. These collectives have begun creating and exporting jewellery (such as bone carved hei matau pendants and greenstone jewellery) and other artistic items (such as wood carvings and textiles). Several actors who have recently appeared in high-profile movies filmed in New Zealand have come back wearing such jewellery, the most notable of which is Viggo Mortensen of The Lord of the Rings fame, who is now never without a Hei Matau hanging around his neck. These events have contributed towards a worldwide interest in traditional Māori culture and arts.

Culture

Maori were originally hunters, but later they became farmers and started the life in agriculture. The main tasks were separarted for men and women, but there were also a lot of group activities like food gathering & food cultivation, warfare. Art was and is one of the main parts of the culture like tatooing or carving of wood. Communal buildings were highly decorated with wood carvings and also the people wore highly decorative personnal ornaments and amulettes. The history was not recorded in written words. To kept the history they had long and very specific songs and chants, that’s why music and poetry was so important.

Religion

Tiki

The Lord of the Rings Maori believe in gods and personifications. The supreme god is Io, the god of the land. The religion is closely related to the nature and to the ancestors, similar to the indians. All things have a type of soul. The Maori believe all living things are descended from the Gods, embodied within certain mountains, rivers and lakes. Most things contain "mana" - spiritual essence. Mana is within man himself, land, nature, and also man-made objects. Tiki was the name given to the first man on earth in the Maori mythology. The term "Tiki" comes out of a Maori legend, when Tane the God of earth, man, birds created the first man. Tiki in Maori personifies the primeval man and it is a powerful good luck symbol. The tilted head symbolises thinking, the hand is strength, the mouth is communication, the heart is love and the loins are fertility.

Tapu

Tapu is the strongest force in Maori life. It can be interpreted as "sacred", as "spiritual restriction" or "implied prohibition" and has numerous meanings and references. Tapu contains a strong conditions of rules and prohibitions. There are two kinds of tabu, the private (concerned individuals) and the public tapu (concerned communities). A person, an object or a place, which is tapu, may not be touched by human contact. In some cases, not even approached. A person, object or a place could be made sacred by tapu for a certain time, and the two main types of tapu were private for individuals and public for communities. In earlier times, tribal members of a higher rank would not touch objects which belonged to members of a lower rank. This was considered "pollution" and persons of a lower rank could not touch the belongings of a highborn person. Death was the penalty. A breach of "tapu" was to commit a violation and it could incur the wrath of the Gods. In earlier times food cooked for a chief was tapu, and could not be eaten by an inferior. A chief's house was tapu, and even the chief could not eat food in the interior of his house. A woman could not enter a chief's house unless a special religious ceremony was performed (the karakia). Not only their houses were tapu, also their possessions, including their clothing. Burying grounds and places of death were always tapu, and these areas were often surrounded by a protective fence. Today, tapu observances are still in use concerning sickness, death, and burial.

Marae

karakia The marae is a local ceremonial centre, dedicated to the meetings of Maori people and there they practice the traditional rituals. It is a place where members share their beliefs and it is the place of the greatest spirituality. The marae symbolises group unity. It is the base of traditional Maori community life In the Marae official functions take place in, like: celebrations, weddings, christenings, tribal reunions, funerals. The older people have the authority and in the marae they give the traditiions to the young people like the legends, the songs or the way of weeving or carving. Locals and visitors have to respect certain rules.

Rituals

Hangi

The simple describtion of hangi is a traditional way of cooking food among people in Polynesia. The hangi consists of a shallow hole dug in the ground. A fire is prepared in the hole and stones are placed on the top of it. When the stones are hot the hangi is prepared for cooking by leaving the hot stones and some of the coals at the bottom of the hole. The food is placed on top of the stones, the meat first, with the vegetables, such as