The Maori are warriors to this day...?

A total of 16 articles about the Maori were found on the BBC website in the advanced search parameters.  The most distinguished pattern is not surprisingly the haka.  Having already gone into detail about the haka in a prior post, I will provide some examples of its use on BBC and its relation to other representations.

The haka is normally placed either within the context of rugby or a cultural performance.  With the Rugby World Cup 2011, these two aspects were combined.  The opening ceremony displayed a historic representation of Maori lifestyle.  The article, “Rugby World Cup Opens in New Zealand," provides a great description of the event:  “At the stadium, the 60,000-strong crowd was transfixed as about 10 silver boats, on wheels, entered the pitch, supported by hundreds of dancers dressed in silver and white. The theme of the opening ceremony was ‘the journey’, with the boats representing the [Maori] settlement of New Zealand.”  The ceremony portrays the image of pre-European settlement and emphasizes the warrior aspect of the Maori during this period. 

The haka is used to portray the warrior lifestyle.  However this warrior representation is intensified by other articles that emphasize a general ferocity of the community.  For example, the article, "France Hands Back Maori Mummified Head to New Zealand," discusses the warrior lifestyles.  The French turned over to New Zealand the "toi moko," a mummified head, after years of campaigning by New Zealand officials and Maori elders.  It was placed on display among the “prehistoric” section, which was done to create a comparison between French “cavemen” and “the ‘savage’ from the other side of the world.”

After equating Maori with prehistoric cavemen, a historically inaccurate comparison, the article goes into detail about the warrior behaviors of the “traditional” Maori: “The Maori traditionally kept tribal heads as war trophies…”

This poses a severe contradiction: the Maori are today largely portrayed as warriors, but the article states that this is traditional behavior.  Why are the Maori represented as warriors, when this is a traditional behavior?  Out of the many Maori I have met, non of them acted in an aggressive war-like behavior.  Who’s interest does it serve to portray the Maori in this traditional view?