IJ & MD
- Apr 17, 2020

152: MoriOri, Melanesia and Mapuche similarities.

I know this has been in the news recently and people will roll their eyes again. Well, that's good exercise for the eyes. We are just asking the questions with pictures. So is there a Mapuche link to the oldest pre-Polynesian arrivals? It is hard to say for sure but the more you look the more you see. Our belief is that the MoriOri were chased out of Aotearoa by the Polynesian arrivals around 1300AD who arrived to find a culture already there. Proof? None! But where do the following things draw there origin from? Not Polynesian that's for sure. I am not presenting any suggestion that it is proof of anything but the similarities are quite striking.

The MoriOri are supposed to be Maori who are not violent. There really isn’t such a thing generally as Maori are a warrior race. The Moriori are likely the first to arrive pre-migration canoes and we have suggested before the migration was from groups of cult like fanatics thrown out of Raiatea after a war and that is just a wild theory because they were different from the moment they got here for two reasons, a change in culture within Polynesia by this group and finding a different culture already here in small numbers and adopting some of their habits and styles. Seeing the warrior like groups arrive in Aotearoa, the Moriori move away - but how and why is unknown as there are no examples of old waka and the boast they used when European arrived (the first to see them since the 1300’s) they were not capable of open ocean travel.

They have a distinct language but very similar to Maori. In fact those in Murihiku also had distinct differences to northern Maori in their language suggesting long isolation in the early years.

One who lived o the island in 1840 described two distinct types on Rekohu, one in the north and one in the south. The southern ones having more Melanesian features. Maybe these were the first ones and fled NZ becasue of the more powerful Polynesian arrived? We already posted similarities in Melanesian and MoriOri art here -

https://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/post/2018/08/23/-are-mori-ori-of-melanesian-origin

You must remember that intermarriage changes everything in a few hundred years but we suggest Melanesian and Polynesian and possibly a third race are involved for the reasons below. In other words, we suggest that MoriOri (and others pre-Polynesian) may have been influenced by some explorers using the South Pacific Gyre to reach here after visiting other islands as far back as 800AD.

Those the European found, being of mixed Polynesian stock it is also likely that arriving in 500 they killed off those there, felt remorseful and banned violence yet adopted the styles of those already there. It is said when they first arrived it is likely they traveled between Rēkohu to the mainland and back but there is no evidence of that. The Maori taken there in 1835 only went because they heard there was a peaceful group. It has been said they went there without knowing it was inhabited because they had been chased out of their own land in the north island. If that is true they should be claiming it back and if that is true it shows that Maori claim land not theirs by warfare and force also. So which is it? We'll let you decide!

Early mapuche

img_9542tepapasm

Mapuche ceremonial weapon vs MoriOri ceremonial weapon

Patterns and designs are similar. MoriOri on the left - Melanesia on the right. Maori has nothing even remotely close.

The above is an old drawing of a tattoo from Melanesia

Carving style. New Ireland (Melanesia) and Hatitimatangi the MoriOri god

Moriori4

museum1

Mori Ori reed boat vs Chile (after all, the MoriOri had no timber to make waka...but how did they come up with an ide for sticks and kelp floats). The Easter Islanders also had a from of reed boat

Now, in the Otago Musuem is a display of items from Pitcairn Island. Pitcairn was supposed to have been reached by Polynesians, and indeed it was. But who else was there. The reason is Pitcairn has a type of artifact found no where else but NZ, not Tahiti, or the Marquesas, or the Cook Islands....only Aotearoa! Why is this? Pitcairn is closer to Chile than Aotearoa!