163: The Tch’akat Henu
The first inhabitants of the Chatham Islands were the 'tchakat henu' or Moriori. Tchakat henu, is a Moriori phrase meaning 'tangata whenua' or first people of the land. Yes, they were the first in those islands. But we have a question. Their language was different to Maori yet Maori could understand them. So they were likely Polynesian or had some measure of influence from there. However, ‘tchakat henu" has no meaning in the language of the land they are said to have come from (Aotearoa) where Maori understood each other. They say that the Moriori came from the south island of NZ. This may be true as the Maori dialect in the south was also different to those in the north; after all the south was likely occupied first because of all the moa. It was only when the moa were finally exterminated that Maori began gardening in the north and the fleet Polynesians arrived.
It is taught that the Moriori were supposed to have sailed from the South Island to the Chathams in the 1400's. First of all, why would they do that when a huge open land was open to them with hardly anyone else in it? No academic of any intelligence seems to ask these questions, nor have an answer for any of ours. Our belief is that they fled 'due to conflict'. In other words they fell into conflict with the fierce Polynesians as certain canoes arrived, (there was no fleet - they arrived at different years and decades). We believe they arrived here due to conflict in Hawaiki, not exploration soley. See below link.
Moriori traditions however, hold that there were already a people in the Chatham Islands before the canoe voyaging Moriori arrived. They were said to be Maori but they were different to Maori. But yes, Maori did arrive later, but to a small group of people (moriori) living there, in the same way Maori found several small tribal groups/races already living in Aotearoa.
What caused the peculiarity of the Moriori dialect? Was the language in process of degradation, or was it owing to the existence of a prior race in the island. The statement is strongly affirmed that on the arrival of the Rangi-mata canoe migration they found inhabitants in the island, and they give the names of the chiefs then living to various places.
So how different were the 'tchakat henu' to Maori...
Appearance - they had differing facial features
They had no moko (tattoos) - at all
Wood carvings are totally different to Maori designs (both Maori Archaic, Classic and everything in between).
No spirals, few linear designs. Mostly animal representations.
Hatitimatangi is unlike any Polynesian or Maori design. Even the name has no correct meaning in Maori.
No weapons, or at least not used for fighting
Indeed, no fighting was allowed. This law is the only case, of any tribe, from any island, in all of Polynesia. Why?
Even ceremonial weapons were different to anything from the archaic period of Maori
They had no kumara, yet Maori brought Kumara with them from Polynesia...! (1)
No dogs, yet Maori brought dogs with them...!
No rats, (but that could be simply that none got into the canoes)
Tree carving ( Dendroglyphs). No Polynesian peoples ever used Dendroglyphs. Aborigines and Melanesians did though.
Rongomaiwhenua was supposed to be the first ancestor, but no account exists of how he got there.
Maori viewed Moriori as an 'inferior' people, so did European. This is a crucial question. Why was that? Few ask the question as to why Maori saw the 'tchakat henu' as inferior.
No academic can seemingly provide any logical answer to these querstons.
According to Moriori, the ancestor Kahu, was the first to sail a canoe to Rekohu from the homeland of Aotea. He found the islands in an unsettled state and joined up the disparate fragments and anchored them in the positions they appear today. Three further canoes followed him back to the homeland, namely Rangihoua and Rangimata, and later Oropuke. Other accounts refer to two autochthonous ancestors created on the island and resident when Kahu arrived, namely Te Aomarama and Rongomaiwhenua. Their origin is not clear, but the islands are said to have been ‘planted’ when the first people appeared. King states that the ancestors of the Moriori are the same people as the ancestors of the New Zealand Maori. He states that they were east Polynesians whose ancestors had entered the Pacific from the region now called South-East Asia and the South China Sea and, after migrating around the Pacific, arrived at New Zealand. (M King, Moriori: A People Rediscovered, Auckland, Viking Press, 1989, p 17)
The term ‘Moriori’ is said to have been adopted after contact with Europeans the same way as the word ‘Maori’, means ‘normal’. Moriori are said not a different ‘race’ of people as once thought, but are an early wave of the same east Polynesian people as Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama.
Archaeological evidence points the final migration of Moriori was from the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand - so they say. Estimates of the time of their arrival on the Chatham Islands vary from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries.
In regard to the population distribution on the island, Moriori themselves identified seven tribal districts in 1791, including one in the north-west of Chatham Island (which held about 200 people); two on the western side (containing 330 and 230 respectively); one in the south-east (made up of 360 members); and one more on Pitt (around 300 people). This gave a population density of about 2000 on a total of 266,878 acres of land. The numbers within each settlement are said to have ranged from 10 to 50 people, with each grouping exercising territorial rights over definite tracts of country. The groupings and location of the Moriori were disrupted following the arrival of Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama, and the total disregard they showed towards Moriori and any rights to land they may have held.
King describes a process whereby: Parties of Maori warriors armed with muskets, clubs and tomahawks, led by their chiefs, walked through Moriori tribal territories and settlements without warning, permission or greeting. If the districts were wanted by the invaders, they curtly informed the inhabitants that their land had been taken and the Moriori living there were now vassals. [Yet Maori accuse Europeans of doing the same thing].
In instances where Moriori contested this process, they were slain. Evidence shows that Moriori were taken as ‘slaves’ from their traditional places of habitation to the areas that had subsequently been claimed by their ‘masters’. It was not until a ‘general manumission’ by the Government in 1863 declaring the end of slavery that Moriori started to re-establish themselves closer to their traditional tribal homes. (Note: Europeans ended the slavery, not Maori). In some instances, however, Moriori simply settled in the areas where their masters had settled. A census taken in 1864 reveals the distribution of Moriori at that time: 92 were living in the Waitangi and Owenga areas, 25 at Kaingaroa, 9 at Wharekauri, and 6 at Tupuangi
Chathams were first sighted by Europeans in 1791. Yet there are no drawings or such like those done in NZ. We wonder why. There is almost nothing up until about 1887 where this woman is shown... Why is there nothing prior?
The Maruiwi matter comes from two sources. Matorahanga from the Wairarapa and Turaukawa of Taranaki, two distant places and made in the old days when the old tohanga were well versed in history.
We believe the earliest in NZ were of a different stock. No pure blood likely existed past 1500. The Maruiwi came from the west, not the east. The Polynesian arrived, interbred and then when powerful enough, attempted to exterminate them. They were not successful but 6 canoes left for Chathams. Not all got there. Kahu arrived from Rarotonga but there were already people living there. While living together for some 200-300 years, new customs would have been adopted but that is likely only from the stronger, which in this case would seem to be the Moriori (Maruiwi?) as the tools and customs do not match much in the way of Polynesians at all. The languages similarity heard was undoubtedly a mix of Polynesian and Melanesian influence. Early European contacts said two distinct types of MoriOri were visible, yet no one had visited those islands since what - 1400? It seems that those on the Chathams lived together but apart - as the differences noted were between the northern and southern parts of the Chathams. Flat faces, distended nostrils flat foreheads (Melanesian) are some of the earliest descriptions. That is not seen now and that would be because of Maori. Maori killed many Moriori and who would they kill first before enslaving the others....? Those they viewed as 'inferior'. This is one of the final reasons why there is little evidence of those traits in the survivors. We say final, because European diseases wiped out about 28% of the population prior to that.
We believe that if skeletons were exhumed from all over the island, (those with blunt force head injuries), the DNA record would be astounding. That will not happen until we produce evidence from our skeletons. But my... what a can of worms we could open up aye?
On these islands there are a few flakes of obsidian and one or two basalt items found. These were likely brought by the invading Maori who then claimed most of the islands for themselves. This was not, but should have been, corrected by the government of the day..
Here is an account from the Moriori deed of settlement with the crown.
Historical Account 2. 7 In late 1835, people of two Maori imi (tribes), whose traditional rohe was in Taranaki, left their settlements at Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) and travelled to Rekohu on a British ship, the Lord Rodney, after hearing of the islands' attractiveness for settlement and believing Moriori would offer little resistance. They intended to take the land but their intentions were unknown to Moriori upon their arrival. The British Resident in New Zealand, James Busby, became aware of their actions, and in 1836 informed the responsible colonial authorities in New South Wales that 'it is to be feared that the result of this expedition will be the extermination or enslavement of the [Moriori]'. However, New South Wales authorities did not take action, nor was the situation investigated upon the assumption of Crown sovereignty over Rekohu in 1842. 2.8 The arrival of Maori was initially peaceful, and the newcomers were welcomed and fed by Moriori in accordance with tikane Moriori (Moriori custom). The newcomers soon began to take the land in accordance with their custom. A few Moriori resisted but were killed. In early 1836 Moriori assembled at Te Awapatiki, where Te Whanga opens to the sea, to decide how to respond. Some wanted to resist the invaders, but the elders Torea and Tapata urged the people to obey Nunuku's law of peace, arguing that to violate it would be contrary to their ancient beliefs and customs. When Moriori returned to their villages they were immediately attacked, and many were killed. Maori accounts from the 1870s put the number of Moriori killed in 1835-36 at around 300, or about one-sixth of the population. Those Moriori who survived the invasion were then enslaved and subjected to harsh treatment and forced labour. This conduct was foreign to and totally at odds with tikane Moriori. Crown Annexation of Rekohu 2.9 In 1840 the Crown proclaimed sovereignty over New Zealand, but the proclamation's descriptions of latitude and longitude did not extend as far as Rekohu. The following year the British Colonial Office discovered that the New Zealand Company claimed to have purchased Rekohu from Maori and was trying to sell it to German interests. The Colonial Office advised the Company that the British Crown had a prior claim of discovery to the islands, and therefore 'no European State could be allowed to establish a Colony, or assert the right of Dominion there, without derogating from the prior claims of the British Crown'. 2.10 In early 1842, in the course of revising an error in the boundaries of the original proclamation of sovereignty, the Colonial Office expanded New Zealand's boundaries to include Rekohu. The Permanent Under-Secretary considered that this would enable the government of New Zealand to do whatever might be necessary for 'the maintenance of peace order and good government' in the islands. 2.11 In 1842 Rekohu and the surrounding islands were annexed to New Zealand, as the Chatham Islands. The Crown did not take any action to treat with or inform the inhabitants• 05\/ 29 lnitialling version for presentation to Moriori for ratification purposes DEED OF SETTLEMENT 2: HISTORICAL ACCOUNT inhabitants of the annexation, or to directly inquire into the state of the islands' inhabitants. Nor did it appoint an official to Rekohu until 1854.
Postscript:
In late November I was contacted by someone who knows of someone from the Chathams with native ancestry (Moriori) who did a DNA test and found they have Melanesian ancestry. Wow! What have we been saying the last four years while the 'academic' patsies bleated 'psuedo' to anyone who would dare suggest the earliest were not of Polynesian stock? The evidence is piling up just waiting on us to do a big reveal...
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