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The faces remind me of Japanese demon masks or Mayan figures.

Not at all.
The reason why they oogba booga was to get individual braves to work up the courage to actually step out of the huddle and into the enemies (every single person outside of the tribe) range to be hurt.

Very low casualties, very quick to flee. Where casualties mounted was when they raided the undefended.

And.. when white man gave them muskets. They would fight and not emotionally link musket balls with threat of death.
So died in huge numbers.
And Maori men were all their farmers. So famine came which bred disease.

The capitulation to the crown saved their species to our overall lament.

Because I've met many decent Maori I can only assume it's due to their massive dose of white blood.

The real threat from Maori bioweapons is due to iwi indoctrination that united the worst ferals then brain washed them to hate whites through lying about history. Usual bs of false victim hood.

All Inter-tribal close combat conflicts are brutal by default. Bravely and aggression in combat among males was a perquisite in most tribal cultures around the world.

There is some nuance (not that it really matters) - but lots of smaller weaker tribes allied with (and fought alongside) the crown for protection from the larger/ stronger tribe depredations.
Māori were not a monolithic people - they were largely independent operating tribal groups, sharing a common culture/ language.

Introduction of muskets massively increased the kill/ death ratio's almost completely wiping out/ devastating many sub-tribes/ large family groups overnight.

Disease and death from hardship, illness still prevailed.

The realization was a 'peaceful resolution' had to be struck, or they would simply either eventually exterminate themselves through musket driven inter-tribal conflict/ or slowly be worn down over time by the continual arrival of greater numbers/ resources and armaments of the British Empire forces and become a forgotten side blip in history.

The modern take on treaty principles (pushed by academics and extremists) ignores that the treaty signatory chiefs, very clearly understood they gave up sovereignty/ Governing rights to the Crown - they all voted for Parliamentary MPs to represent them and their people's interests before the Crown.

EDIT: It's also why a huge amount also turned to Christianity (learnt English and how to read, write) as they recognized it as a better more beneficial system for the individual and community.

Being told to run into machine gun fire doesn't do much for survivability.