Interest in the common ancestry of Māori and Taiwan's indigenous people has led Anton Blank, editor and founder of the Māori literary journal Ora Nui to publish a special edition of the journal, presenting the writing and artwork from both indigenous peoples.
According to Austronesian migration tracing, Māori descend from the indigenous tribes of Taiwan, who migrated widely.
The Austronesian migration spans Polynesia, South East Asia, and Madagascar. “We are part of that migration,” Blank says.
“Aotearoa was the last country they landed in but we share linguistic and cultural similarities with the cultures in those regions.
“They have canoes that look like waka, strong presence of red, black and white in their arts,” he says.
Frequent visits to the Taipei book fair increased Blank’s interest in this history and ultimately led him to work with a Taiwanese historian in producing Ora Nui.
“We were both really interested in this dynamic so collaborating on creative writing was quite a natural process.”