We know now that the mid-century version of national mythology (featuring a settlement of NZ by a Great Fleet in about 1350) is unmitigated ahistorical shite, fabricated by an ethnologist who distorted the available oral traditions to fit his preconceived picture, with the help of a Māori informant who had converted to Mormonism and who was committed to the idea that the Māori were one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.Apparently, the Great Fleet theory serves the agenda of those who wish to excuse the expropriation of the Māori on the grounds that, hey, they weren't here first anyway, but had supplanted a prior population of ... *cough* ... Celts.
I'm fascinated by stuff like this - the history of history. Or, to be precise, the history of how history comes to be filled with nonsense made up by white dickheads.