Before Europeans arrived in New Zealand Russell was known by its Maori name, Kororareka. It was just one of many small settlements in Pewhairangi/Bay of Islands region whose numbers increased seasonally as inland Maori came to the coast to fish. The region covered not only the bay but also areas inland including Kerikeri, Waimate, Kaikohe and Kawakawa.

Originally home to the Ngare Raumati iwi (tribe), it is now also home to Ngapuhi, the largest iwi in New Zealand. who had originally arrived in voyaging waka about a thousand years ago. In the 1800's the iwi expanded eastwards from their Taiamai base pushing out the older tribe.

The earliest European explorers visiting the Bay spoke of a well-populated area, with extensive gardens and people willing to trade and interested in the visitors. (We still are!).

James Cook anchored off Motuarohia Island, just off the Russell peninsula in November 1769. He sent his boats to visit some of the islands and bays, finding "several little plantations planted with potatoes and yams" and people willing to trade "quantities of various sorts of fish which we purchased off them". He noted villages and kumera gardens. "The place of the country appears green and pleasant" and the soil "pretty rich and proper for cultivation". His overall impression of the Maori people of the Bay was that they were "far more numerous than at any other place we have yet been in and seem to live in friendship with one another".

The French explorer Dumont d'Urville on his first visit in the 1820s records the beginnings of European contact and influence, with Maori involved in providing supplies for visiting shipping - fish, greens, pork, kumera and fresh water.

By this stage the Maori settlement of Kororareka was attracting increasing numbers of Europeans. Pa (fortified place) and kainga (village) were being replaced by grogshop and trading post.

Legend has it that Kororareka is named after a broth made from the little blue penguin which was given to a Maori chief wounded in battle. He was believed to have said "Ka reka te korora - how sweet is penguin", leading to the town's name. Today, little blue penguins still come ashore after dark on the beach at Russell/Kororareka to nest under the floorboards of waterfront buildings.