IJ
- Feb 23, 2016

28: The Moriori

The Moriori have long been discussed as whether they are part of the group of races known as Waitaha. I’m almost beginning to wonder whether there are no Waitaha but rather it was the name of the collective group, not a distinct tribe. However, I’ll explore that later. Moriori had a distinct dialect, lack of cultivated foods, a semi nomadic lifestyle following food sources and they often lived in circular huts. They lacked earthworks and fortifications due to the lack of need for defense. Their adzes were of strong Polynesian design but that would be usual if just 2000 lived on one island with no need for variation. They used no tattooing as many earlier inhabitants were described as lacking. They had different boats and paddles but they were still of 1400AD design. There is little left of Maori design from 1400’s so we can’t assume Moriori would develop as Maori did with cross country wars and contact to reveal new designs with better resources of stone and pounamu tools. They carved on limestone faces and also carved human form into tree trunks.

This point of difference does not prove Moriori arrived direct from Polynesia. They were in fact present in NZ when Maori arrived as many other tribes were, especially in the south island. One example is the The Murihiku area, including Southland, Otago, and Canterbury south of the Rangitata river. The culture of this area also had a strongly-marked dialect; the absence of any cultivated foods; the absence of houses on piles; the frequent use of the circular hut, which in the western parts of the area is the only form recorded; by small villages on the coast; the almost complete absence of earthwork fortifications; the frequent use of double canoes and the occasional use of the outrigger; the almost entire absence of woodcarving in houses and canoes; a decorative art in which rectilinear patterns were used almost exclusively; a type of tattooing entirely different from that of the North Island, though North Island patterns were also used; by great skill in working bone and stone; by great diversity in types of adze, showing, however, an overwhelming predominance of Polynesian forms; by paintings on the walls of rock shelters in North Otago and South Canterbury, In fact, when Cook arrived in Dusky Sound the few he met, Maru included, were living similarly to those of the Moriori at the time. These ones in Rakitimu and Tamatea were hiding from the warrior Maori. These ones were of the original Tangata Whenua, chased into remote locations. In fact most areas of NZ had quite distinct differences and language variations. Maori were never ever a united group, make no mistake.

Click to enlarge photos

Interestingly, those who say the Moriori never were on NZ need to learn that the Moriori have a god called Ouenuku. The name in 'Maori' means 'footprint of the rainbow'. Interesting in that it is a Maori name as well as a Moriori name because this proves the MoriOri were in NZ and were chased out, not sailed direct to the Chathams as many claim. If they came from the same place (Hawaiiki) with the same God, surely they would have arrived together. However, the Moriori were here before Maori. The pou of Te Uenuku then, may not be a Tainui treasure after all, but belong to someone else and it was taken up as the God of Tainui when they arrived, who through assimilation, learned of the local lore and customs before pushing them out as so many tribes did to each other over time. One cannot say that is offensive, it was common Maori practice and even Ngai Tahu have only recently taken South Island before European arrived. Let any of Maori descent not get too emotional about a fact they do not like.

The Moriori were once thought to be of Melanesian descent but have recently been stated as being of Polynesian decent as their language suggest. In fact their facial features match Melanesian not Polynesian, but as they are an old inhabitant of NZ before Polynesian arrived none can say for sure other than with 450 years of total isolation, they looked distinctly different to Maori. (see photo at bottom of article). The island we call Chatham Island is called Rēkohu. This means misty rain and in Maori ‘kohu’ means mist so yes, they were once on the mainland. Kohu also means the same in Marquesan, Rarotongan, Samoan, Tahitian, Hawaiian and even Taumotan (east of Tahiti). Moriori followed Nunuku’s law. This was a solemn vow of peace, maybe in response to what they had experienced from Maori when they arrived. Regardless that vow had tragic consequences in 1835 when they were killed, eaten, enslaved and disposed of their land by 900 members of two tribes, the Ngāti Mutunga and the Ngāti Tama . Why would they do this? A feeling of superiority or in utu for past offenses still remembered from hundreds of years before? My theory is the second suggestion. Nunuku is said to be a pacifist who managed to have his ways followed for 400 years.

According to Moriori, the descendants of a man called Rongomaiwhenua belonged to a race called Hamata. They were described as ‘no ro hunu ake’ (sprung from the earth). They were said to be very tall, and living on Rēkohu when the first visitor, Kahu, arrived. The Hamata (iwi) wore sealskin clothes...as some in remote Murikiku did.

There is a story about Kahu, captain of the Tane canoe. Apparently he found the island and found two people groups. He didn’t like Rēkohu and so Kahu returned to Hawaiki. Now, how would Maori forget this? Well, some knew because the Moriori remembered the story and shifted there. But no other Maori knew where it was until Europeans told them of it. Nunuku’s Law forbade murder and the eating of human flesh. He proclaimed to the combatants, ‘From now and forever, never again let there be war as this day has seen!’ This covenant, known as Nunuku’s Law, was accompanied by Nunuku’s Curse: ‘May your bowels rot the day you disobey’. Moriori were later described even by their Māori tormentors as a ‘very tapu (reverential] people’.

Moriori adapted to their new environment, developing such innovations as the wash-through raft. This craft, which had a base of inflated kelp and sides of bound reeds, became partially waterlogged and was therefore more stable in rough seas and high winds. It was invented through necessity and could navigate the seas around the islands without capsizing as a conventional canoe would. The largest of these vessels, the waka pahi, was over 12 metres long, and was used for voyages to gather albatross chicks from offshore islands.

In late November 1791 a British ship, the Chatham, was blown off course to Rēkohu. Lieutenant William Broughton planted the British flag and, claiming Rēkohu in the name of King George III, named it Chatham Island. In a misunderstanding with the ship’s crew, a Moriori man named Tamakaroro was shot while defending his fishing nets. He was the first Moriori to be killed by gunfire. The elders believed Moriori were partly responsible and devised an appropriate ritual for greeting visitors in future. Sealers and whalers were a familiar sight on the Chatham Islands from the early 1800s. They brought with them diseases to which Moriori had no immunity. Some of their boats had Māori crew members, and news of the islands reached Māori on mainland New Zealand.

In 1835, 24 generations after the Moriori chief Nunuku had forbidden war, Moriori welcomed about 900 people from two Māori tribes, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama. Originally from Taranaki on New Zealand’s North Island, they had voyaged from Wellington on an overcrowded European vessel, the Rodney. They arrived severely weakened, but were nursed back to health by their Moriori hosts. However, they soon revealed hostile intentions and embarked on a reign of terror. Stunned, Moriori called a council of 1,000 men at Te Awapātiki to debate their response. The younger men were keen to repel the invaders and argued that even though they had not fought for many centuries, they outnumbered the newcomers two to one and were a strong people. But the elders argued that Nunuku’s Law was a sacred covenant with their gods and could not be broken. The consequences for Moriori were devastating.

Although the total number of Moriori first slaughtered was said to be around 300, hundreds more were enslaved and later died. Some were killed by their captors. Others, horrified by the desecration of their beliefs, died of ‘kongenge’ or despair. According to records made by elders, 1,561 Moriori died between 1835 and 1863, when they were released from slavery. Many succumbed to diseases introduced by Europeans, but large numbers died at the hands of Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama. In 1862 only 101 remained. When the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933, many thought this marked the extinction of a race. From the 1850s Moriori elders petitioned New Zealand’s governor for recognition of their status as original inhabitants of the islands, and for restoration of the lands taken from them. However, it was not until 1863, 23 years after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, that Moriori were officially released from slavery by mainland Māori, in a proclamation by the resident magistrate of the Chatham Islands.

So in relation to how Maori say Europeans treated them, let’s remember that it was only in 1863 that Maori stopped the practice of slavery.