Early settlers (New Zealand)

Where can I find information about early settlers of New Zealand?

(Years 7-10)

Portrait photo from the 1880s of a European family from Palmerston North, South Island of Aotearoa NZ. — Image: Nairn Family Portrait by [unknown] on Manawatū Heritage.

Entry last updated: 3/08/26

Introduction

European settlers began to arrive in New Zealand from 1769. Over the years settlers from many parts of the world have moved to live here too. Find out how they arrived, where they came from, what life was like then, and how they interacted with Māori, the tangata whenua of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Where they came from

These New Zealand websites have the best information on where early settlers came from and their journeys to Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara is an excellent starting point for all questions about Aotearoa New Zealand. If we look down to the bottom of the page we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage. The information is well-researched and reliable.

Here are some ways to find information about early settlers.

Go to the
- First peoples in Māori tradition tells stories of Polynesian settlement in Aotearoa.
- Read European discovery of New Zealand about how James Cook and other explorers came to New Zealand.
- History of immigration has details about the early years of immigration and the growth of settlements.
- Read The voyage out to learn about what journeys to New Zealand were like and the personal accounts of travellers.Topics menu and choose History. There are lots of stories to explore:
Or from Topics, choose Immigrant groups for a list of peoples who have made their way to Aotearoa New Zealand. This includes early settlers such as the French, Dutch, Irish, Dalmatians and Chinese.
You can also use the search feature. Enter keywords like '1840' or 'British settlement' to explore Europeans to 1840 and British Sovereignty and settlement. These stories talk about early European settlers and how settlements began.

Tips: Sites that have .govt.nz or .ac.nz are from NZ government or educational organisations. We like sites like this because they’re reliable and relevant to us.

NZ History

NZ History is a great website for information about New Zealand Aotearoa. It also comes from the Ministry for Culture & Heritage.

First, select Culture and Society.
Explore information under different headings.
Under Pre-1840 contact find information about Missionaries, Sealers and whalers, and Encounters.
The heading Decade studies has the article A history of New Zealand 1769-1914.
Or look under Immigration to find British and Irish immigration, 1840-191.

Tips: Explore 'Further information' for links to other websites that have related information.

Rārangi Kōrero | New Zealand Heritage List

This is part of the Heritage New Zealand website. It is a record of place-based heritage in New Zealand.

In the search options, choose Advanced.
This will bring up a drop down menu for Themes.
Choose Cultures (other than Māori and Pakeha) and show results.
Select a place to find more out about it and the culture it was important to.
There might be further information under Significance or Historical Narrative.

Early settler life

There was a lot of work to do in early colonial New Zealand. Land had to be cleared to build communities and for farming. The following websites have information about daily life in 19th century New Zealand.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara also has information about the daily life of early settlers in New Zealand.

Enter the keywords 'colonial life' into the search bar at the top of the page.
Look through the results for pages like Colonial street life, 1840-1914 for what life was like in cities.
Or choose Colonial beginning 1840s-1880s for a look at the difference between men and women's lives during this time.

Another way to explore this website is through the Sitemap.

Go to the Sitemap along the top of the page.
Look down to the section: Daily life, sport and recreation.
Choose Home and daily life to explore stories about different parts of early settler life.
Go back to the Sitemap and find the section Settled Landscape.
From here you can look at Country Life for information about living in the country in colonial New Zealand eg Rural language, Rural clothing and Farm families.
Go back to the Sitemap again and find the section Social Connections.
Choose Religion and Society to find out about religious traditions brought over by European settlers.

Tips: Many web pages have links to further information or to other recommended sites. Following these links is a great way to find out more.

DigitalNZ

DigitalNZ searches online resources from different New Zealand libraries, museums, universities and more. It has lots of primary sources.

Enter the keywords 'early settlers' into the search box.
You can also add in extra keywords like location eg 'early settlers Wellington'.
You can look at different types of results by choosing the different tabs along the top, like images, audio, videos, or stories.
The tab More has newspapers, articles and research papers.

Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. Usually it’s better to leave out small words like ‘the’, ‘a’ and ‘of’ and just choose the main ones, eg early settlers. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.

Papers Past

This website is for digitised New Zealand newspapers. It has newspaper articles from the early days of European settlement.

Go to the tab called Newspapers.
Explore newspapers By Region and choose a region eg Auckland.
A list of the newspapers will appear alphabetically. It shows dates of publication from First year to Last year eg Albertland Gazett started in 1862.

Tips: Papers Past has other useful sections. Explore Magazines and Journals, Letters and Diaries, and Parliamentary Papers for different types of primary sources.

Economy

Whaling, farming, logging and gold mining were some of the first industries that contributed to the colonial economy and communities.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Different sections on Te Ara will lead you to information about the economy in colonial New Zealand.

Go to Topics and choose Economy for a list of different stories.
Choose Te Māori i te ohanga - Māori and the economy, Government and industrial development and Regional economy.
Or look at Farming in the economy about early farming and the pastoral era.
You can also find stories on Gold and gold mining, sealing, whaling.
You can also search using keywords. For example use 'trade 1840' or 'industry 1840'. Look for stories about different industries such as the timber industry before 1840 and from 1840 to 1920.

Tips: Te Ara has lots of information on this topic. We recommend you explore other sections to expand your understanding of this topic.

Te Papa Tongarewa - Passports Exhibition

Te Papa has lots of collections that help illustrate early settler life. This long running exhibition explores stories of people who migrated to New Zealand.

Choose a topic from the list under Publications and topics.
Whale harpoon gives an overview of whaling in New Zealand.
New Zealand gold nuggets looks at the gold rush in New Zealand.

Tips: Sites that have .govt.nz or .ac.nz are from NZ government or educational organisations. We like sites like this because they’re reliable and relevant to us.

Politics and Government

These websites look at how early settlers went about setting up a government in New Zealand.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara has information about the history and role of the government in New Zealand.

Go to Topics.
Choose Government institutions to look at Colonial and provincial government. This explains how the early government in New Zealand worked.
Another topic from the list to look at is History.
Read Treaty of Waitangi and He Whakaputanga – Declaration of Independence. This will help you understand why they are an important part of Aotearoa New Zealand.

NZ History

NZ History is another reliable source of New Zealand politics, including history.

From the homepage check out their section Politics and Government.
Under Political milestones find the link to Political and Constitutional timeline.
Look at Māori leadership to read about The Māori King movement 1860-1894.

The Aotearoa History Show

The Aotearoa History Show is a video series made by Radio New Zealand (RNZ). It tells the story of Aotearoa New Zealand from when the land was formed to today.

Go to Season 1.
Find Votes, Depressions & Refrigerators.
Select Episode details to see which topics are covered.
You will also find a link to watch the video version.

Interaction with Māori

Find information about interactions between Māori, the tangata whenua, and European settlers.

NZ History

NZ History is also a good place to look for information about interactions between Māori and early settlers.

From the homepage, look at Culture and Society.
Choose Pre-1840 contact.
From here you can look at Encounters. These are stories of first meetings between Pacific navigators and European navigators.
You can also choose A frontier of chaos? This describes Māori values and practices that guided their responses to early Europeans.
Go back to the Culture and Society page and choose Decade Studies. Look at A history of New Zealand 1769-1914 to read about the Musket Wars, the New Zealand Wars, and the Treaty of Waitangi.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara also has information on the early interactions between Māori and early settlers.

Go to Topics and choose Māori and Pākehā encounters.
There are lots of stories here including Māori–Pākehā relations and Māori and maps of colonisation
Or you can choose the Sitemap from the homepage.
Then look down the page for the heading Settled Landscape. Choose Claiming the Land to find out how settlers took over land owned by Māori.

The Aotearoa History Show

The Aotearoa History Show is a video series made by Radio New Zealand (RNZ). It tells the story of Aotearoa New Zealand from when the land was formed to today.

Go to Season 1.
Find Early Encounters.
Select Episode details to see which topics are covered.
You will also find a link to watch the video version.

Hōpara Kaupapa | Topic Explorer

Topic Explorer is from the National Library of New Zealand. Each topic has carefully chosen resources, including images, articles, videos, and more.

For information about how early Pākehā and Māori interacted:

Choose the year level Years 7 - 8.
Go to Māori and Pākehā relationships 1790–1840.

Tips: We like these links because they have all been chosen by librarians, so the sites will be trustworthy. It is a good idea to find the About us link on each site, to see what the site's missions and values are.