

169: Melanesian musings
For the uneducated in ocean going travel and looking at the fact that Melanesia is closer to NZ than Polynesia, you'd be right to at...
IJ
Apr 3, 2021


Sidestep: The Patupaiarehe
We don't go much for these legends. But that doesn't mean these people, or a form of them, didn't exist, we are more sceptical for the...
MD
Mar 20, 2021


168: The Moriori question (again...)
In late November 2020 a group of Moriori trustees attended a ceremony at the Auckland War Memorial Museum to receive a whalebone taonga...
IJ
Mar 6, 2021


Sidestep: The Last Maori vs Maori Armed Conflict
Maori have been fighting each other since 1350. Many battles, some very famous, are recorded. All were with clubs and spears. Ngati Hotu...
IJ
Feb 20, 2021


167: What does the Kaitaia carving represent
The above carving (known as Tangonge) has been debated by many, including us. In the early days many believed it not to be of Maori...
IJ
Feb 13, 2021


Sidestep: Triangular Teeth
A skull which has an unquestionable bearing on the subject, was deposited in the Whanganui Museum in 1913. It was found at Te Maire, an...
IJ
Feb 6, 2021


166: Is Te Uenuku really 'unique'?
The Tainui iwi share a common ancestry from Polynesian migrants who arrived in New Zealand on the Tainui waka, which voyaged across the...
IJ
Jan 30, 2021


Sidestep: The Colonialists of Rekohu (it's real name)
This post is about those who invaded, killed, enslaved a people and took over a land not theirs. No, we aren't talking about the British,...
YM & IJ
Jan 23, 2021


165: Moriori Origins
From the journal of the Polynesian Society can be found the following from 1910. Make sure you get to the piece at the very end; after...
IJ
Jan 9, 2021


Sidestep: The Tainui
In Māori tradition, Tainui was one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand approximately 800 years...
IJ & MD
Dec 26, 2020