It helps hugely if I don’t think you’re just out of the Stone Age. Which is where I pretty much place Australia’s indigenous peoples prior to European colonisation. Some are still there. Provide evidence of Iron Age tools and I’ll happily re-consider.
In New Zealand a very different situation. Maori people relatively recent inhabitants. Hundreds of years rather than thousands. Relatively sophisticated culture. Coherent society. Reflected in the Treaty of Waitangi between their leaders and the British Crown. No historical curiosity. Its obligations still being interpreted by the Courts today.
