Sidestep - Chatham Island Patu's

We seem to go on about life in the Chathams in pre-European times - before the Maori invasion of the Chatham Islands (Rēkohu) and we will only use this name as it was what it is really called pre-invasion. Maori have no right to call it Wharekauri, even if some live there, and yet maori insist European names in NZ should be changed to original Maori names.

The patu of Rēkohu and the patu of the Maori are very different. Some keep saying that Moriori are Maori and shifted over here in the 14th century. That being the case, there would be at least one example, if not hundreds, of the Maori patu designs on Rēkohu, and there would be at least one, if not dozens, of Moriori examples of patu in Aotearoa. So, how many examples do we have as described above... Yes, you guessed correctly - there are absolutely none! And don't confuse things taken there by invading Maori tribes.

The first two above are the ones we are referring to. The third one has similarities with Clavia in South America (Not Maori) but we will leave that for another time.

Firstly the patu in nz is unique. The only other example in the whole planet of a standard patu shape in is Taiwan and it is called a Batu, (yes, you heard correctly) and it's shape is exact to the standard Patu Onewa of the Maori. Nowhere in the islands Maori came from is anything found that resembles the clubs here in NZ. Nowhere! There isn't even an old example of one brought here with them when they migrated. Maori clubs of bone, wood and stone are unique to these islands. Where did they see these examples to make them want to manufacture something different to what they grew up with? The obvious answer is the original inhabitants, of which up to four different racial groups may have existed. Again, Moriori clubs are unique to their island too but only after they migrated; being on of those four unique groups evading the Maori.

The general view is that the whole patu group evolved in New Zealand, and this view was accepted and used by academics. Yet there is no example of evolutionary design progression. Does that suggest something?

The principal varieties of the patu which exist in the New Zealand-Chatham Islands area are shown above. Also the Maori Patu. the commonest of all varieties, namely the onewa of dark basalt, andesite, or dolerite. This form is also rendered in wood (rare), nephrite (ridging on butt rare in this material), and whale-bone (common). Fig. 2 and 3 are Chatham Island examples made of whale-bone. The butt of fig. 2 represents a bird's head, while that of fig. 3 represents two human heads facing outwards. There is no direct evidence that patu with serrated edges were made in New Zealand.

The Patu form has not yet been recorded in any part of Polynesia east of Samoa except in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, and at Easter Island.

But in what part of the world Moriori designs appear similar? The only locations where serrated weapons of any material are occur in Melanesia and Micronesia. It is not coincidence that first observers put pure-blood Moriori into a different category physically compared to Polynesians but we wish to focus directly on what clear evidence exists around things in existence today that we can see an touch... tools.