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Links between Maori and the indigenous people of Taiwan have been acknowledged in a new free trade agreement.
The pact with China Taipei calls for steps to foster links between the indigenous people of both countries.
Scholars using DNA analysis to track the path of Polynesian migration have found a trail leading back to the island off the coast of China.
The document calls for cooperation between the Ministry for Maori Development, Te Puni Kokiri and Taiwan’s Council of Indigenous Peoples, as well as links among academic and tribal bodies and stronger relationships between importers and exporters of Maori and Taiwanese aboriginal goods.
Stephen Payton, the director of New Zealand’s Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei, says indigenous Taiwanese have been looking to Maori for models in their own economic and cultural development.
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