Australia & New Zealand in 000: Sahul peopling — Section 604: Sahul peopling

Aboriginal and Māori first peoples, British settler colonies, and modern multicultural Pacific democracies. Australia & New Zealand is treated here as a cultural region — languages, foods, festivals, arts and living histories — not as a biological race. Borders blur; people move; traditions remix. When reading the “Sahul peopling” stage inside the Australia & New Zealand atlas entry, recording both the reference period and the operating boundary around figure 65 prevents common misinterpretations in real-world decisions.

This guide gathers origin stories, linguistic maps, everyday cuisine, ritual calendars, aesthetic forms and how the region looks in the twenty-first century, including diasporas. Images lean on Wikimedia Commons where licences allow commercial reuse. Claims prefer dated, checkable history over stereotypes.

Is "Australia & New Zealand" one people? No. The label groups many communities that share historical contact, trade or aesthetic exchange. Local identities remain primary. Cultures are not sports teams. This atlas explains practices and histories without superior/inferior scores. Rather than relying on simplified league tables or slogans, keeping the primary Australia & New Zealand section open beside benchmark 65 (“Sahul peopling”) gives operators and readers a verifiable decision trail.