Pre-Māori settlement of New Zealand theories

Since the early 1900s it has been accepted by archaeologists and anthropologists that Polynesians (who became the Māori) were the first ethnic group to settle in New Zealand (first proposed by Captain James Cook). Before that time and until the 1920s, however, a small group of prominent anthropologists proposed that the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands represented a pre-Māori group of people from Melanesia, who once lived across all of New Zealand and were replaced by the Māori. While this claim was soon disproven by academics, it was widely incorporated into school textbooks during the 20th century, most notably in the School Journal. This theory has been followed by modern claims of a pre-Māori settlement of New Zealand. Today, such theories are considered to be pseudohistorical and negationist by scholars and historians.

Today, speculation about pre-Māori settlers may include conspiracy theories opposing academic research. Some public figures have used these theories to undermine Māori status as first settlers.