Crossword Genius

It's notorious to agree without the Maori (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

noted

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'it's notorious' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'agree without the maori' is the wordplay.
'agree' becomes 'nod' (I've seen this before).
'without' indicates putting letters inside ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'the maori' becomes 'te' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'nod' enclosing 'te' is 'NOTED'.

'to' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for noted that I've seen before include "Made a record - celebrated" , "Observed - recorded" , "Famous, well-known - entered into little book" , "Like music" , "taken down" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app