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Thread: Similarities between Hawaiian and New Zealand Culture

  1. #1
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    Default Similarities between Hawaiian and New Zealand Culture

    For those of you who are familiar with both, what would you say is similar about the culture in Hawaii when compared to the culture of New Zealand? What is different?

  2. #2
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    I notice similarities in the spellings of things--it seems like one language (Maori and Hawaiian) with lots of vowels and Ks and Ws

    In fact, the similarities are overwhelming.

    Too many to list and also don't want to make sweeping generalizations about culture (don't want to risk being offensive).

    No luaus though.

    Oh, and it is cold here. the water is cold too.

    think of this as Hawaii's colder cousin. yeah, that is it in a nutshell.

  3. #3
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    No luaus though.
    There are Hungis or Hāngis
    I was struck by similarities of all South Pacific cultures, though many have developed separately for over 800 years. Tikis, religion, traditional dress and etiquette are a few that stood out to me.

  4. #4
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    Some similarities, number of differences. I can’t speak for all of NZ or all of Hawaii, so I’ll do a Oahu/Honolulu comparison to Auckland, as those are the places I’ve live(d) in.

    It is obviously warmer in Hawaii, but gets darker sooner in summer. Water is much, much warmer.

    Oahu/Honolulu is much more diverse and international, better public transport. Similar feeling of isolation and being far away from the world, although from a material point of view (what goods are on offer, how long does it take to get them, how much are they etc), Honolulu was better than Auckland and didn’t feel as far away from the rest of the world.

    The Polynesian culture is somewhat similar, but the Hawaiian culture is a lot less violent, or ‘rough’, not sure how to phrase this. More surfing, less war. The Hawaiian Polynesian culture seems to revolve less around warfare and survival. I would put this down to the climate, as NZ is simply a much rougher place to live in, and limitations on resources normally make for more arguments between people wanting access to them. That really is just a rough and over general impression, of course, as there surely is more than one PhD thesis potentially in that topic. They obviously share the same origins, a lot of the myths are the same, but i suspect due to their environments have developed quite differently. As far as I remember, the way the Hawaiian society was structured (pre white takeover) was quite different to the Maori society, where the former was more uniform, with less tribal emphasis and a royal family, whereas the Maori society seems to be structured more around separate tribes.

    Some similarities in language (‘wahine’ is the same in both, I think ‘wai’ means some form of water in both and ‘moana’ is coast), but there is no ‘r’ in Hawaiian and they have glottal stops, where there are no glottal stops in Maori, and there is ‘r’ but no ‘l’, I think.

    For me personally, the biggest differences are race related. As a haole (equivalent to pakeha here) in Hawaii, you are the minority, and you can feel it. Your presence is not particularly wanted, necessary or appreciated, unless a tourist who leaves money there. This is not a bad thing at all, in fact, I have appreciated living as the minority, and not the minority in power. I have not found the same clearcut separation between having power and money along racial lines in Hawaii as I have found it here in NZ.

    Just personal impressions, of course.

    Daniela

  5. #5
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    ^Nice post. Been wondering about those kinds of things...

    Hawaii was the first place I wanted to move to, before I discovered NZ.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by dharder View Post

    Some similarities in language (‘wahine’ is the same in both, I think ‘wai’ means some form of water in both and ‘moana’ is coast), but there is no ‘r’ in Hawaiian and they have glottal stops, where there are no glottal stops in Maori, and there is ‘r’ but no ‘l’, I think.
    much more eloquently put--and much more accurate than I was!

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