ANSWER: The Maori Iwi (clans) are Polynesians who settled in Aoteraoa NZ from Eastern Polynesia who had formally came through Central Polynesia. The name "Maor'i" is studied to have derived from the word "Moa'i". However there are many Maori Iwi and Polynesians may have settled in the South lands of Aotearoa New Zealand over long periods of time, the first waves coming in over generations from population growth, entitlement War, pushing migration over time. In Central Polynesia the islands of "Sa'Moa" and the areas of today known as Tonga are known as sea-faring people and responsible for colonizing Eastern Polynesia regions. These settlements to the east happened long before Tonga had a separate national identity. In Rapa Nui, the Sacred Moa'i (or the Sa' Moa'i) statues still stand tall with Samoan Bird Tatau motifs on their backs. The island of Samoa also have an ancient history of "The House of Hundreds", a time when Eastern Samoa and the Tui Manu'a reigned over vast regions even stretching past the Polynesian Triangle into Micronesia and Melanesia.
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