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I grew up to respect the indigenous traditions of this country. It was taught at school, and since I've have lived here for the last 54 out of my 58 years, the fact that I was born in England is not really relevant to this.
However the other interesting thing you bring up is the difference between the attitudes of USA Native Americans, Australia Aboriginals and NZ Maori. As you correctly surmise, Native Americans are not happy about non-Native Americans wearing war-bonnets and other paraphernalia they they are not culturally entitled to (for further reading, look up the controversy over the name of the Washington Redskins NFL team). However, Maori are for the most part, honoured by this, and encourage people to learn about and participate in the culture and to openly display Maori symbols. It is not uncommon for many young people these days to have tattoos of Maori art.
The probable reason for this difference in attitude is the different ways that indigenous people were treated. While white New Zealanders traded with Maori and, for the most part relations, were friendly (although there were brush wars which ran on and off from 1845 to 1872 in which about 2,000 Maori were killed) the fact is that the Treaty of Waitangi (signed in 1840) was a partnership between the colonising peoples and the indigenous population. Compare that with now the British treated Native Americans and Australian Aboriginals. They committed genocide upon them; the indigenous peoples were were ruthlessly slaughtered in their hundreds of thousands; and almost wiped them off the face of the land. Those who were left were herded into reservations, usually on crap land, and their borders were squeezed ever and ever smaller. The Australian Aboriginals were friendly and generous people, they lived on the land that they shared with all others because they had absolutely no concept whatsoever of land ownership. However, when they "shared" the British farmer's stock animals, this was considered as theft (cattle rustling); the farmers just sent out hunting parties to kill.
I guess its the nature of our shared history with Maori that makes the difference. We embrace that shared history while other countries are probably more ashamed of theirs, or if not, they ought to be.
One thing I have noticed about all this is how New Zealand is singled out by people who object to traditional "war dances" before matches. Fiji also has one (the Cibi), as do Tonga (Sipi Tau), Samoa (Sivi Tau) and the Cook Islands (Moiva). Even the Madagascan rugby team has one. Yet nary a word is spoken about their dances. I guess there's no news in it!
