Sidestep: Melanesia, Marlborough and Rangitane

Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen came from a landowning family of Baltic Germans with a tradition of service to the Russian government. At the age of 10 he enrolled in the Russian navy. From 1803 to 1806 he took part in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe. He then commanded ships in the Baltic and Black seas and was made a captain in 1816. In 1819 Bellingshausen was appointed commander of the southern polar expedition which left the Russian naval base of Kronstadt in the Gulf of Finland in July 1819.

He had charge of two ships, the Vostok and the Mirny. His orders were to explore as far south as possible and to engage in scientific work. The Vostok's library included editions of all three of James Cook's voyages. In December 1819 South Georgia was mapped, and discoveries made in the South Sandwich Islands. Sailing further south in January 1820, Bellingshausen sighted the coast of Antarctica, but did not realise the magnitude of his discovery. The expedition then made for Port Jackson (Sydney), which Bellingshausen reached on 11 April 1820. Leaving Port Jackson on 20 May, Bellingshausen tried to go north in the Vostok to spend the winter exploring the Pacific. Winds drove him eastward and he arranged a rendezvous with the Mirny at Queen Charlotte Sound. Both ships passed through Cook Strait and anchored in Ship Cove on 9 June 1820 (28 May, Old Style), where two canoes rowed out to them.

An old man standing in the leading canoe made a speech and was invited on board. Bellingshausen used the Māori vocabulary compiled by Cook to request fish, which was bought in large quantities. Trading took place over the following days and the Russians acquired carved artefacts, greenstone ornaments and woven flax clothing. The Māori Bellingshausen met were familiar with Europeans: they requested nails and axes and showed fear of guns. Comparing what he observed with Cook's description of the same area, Bellingshausen found potato gardens where there had been no food cultivation 50 years before. The Māori Bellingshausen observed were probably Rangitane: for he noted their tattoos and their distinctive wearing of nose sticks.

Their society was subsequently destroyed by tribes from the north armed with muskets.

Australian Aborigine and a Solomon Islander with nose sticks

Rangitane is said to have landed at the Māhia Peninsula around 1350. Rangitane have resided in the northern South Island for many generations since the arrival of their tupuna Te Huataki in the sixteenth century. Rangitane have close whakapapa connections with other Kurahaupo iwi (Ngati Apa ki te Ra To and Ngati Kuia). Rangitane established themselves as tangata whenua through conquest, intermarriage and assimilation with the tribes they found residing in the district. The maunga and awa in the region are the source of stories and whakatauki and in some cases embody their tupuna. In turn they in turn suffered conquest, intermarriage and assimilation by other northern tribes. In essence, Rangitane, like other tribes is a shadow of its former self in both customs and territory.

Rangitane have even used red face paint across the eyes in some ceremonies, yet this is an Amazonian custom not a Polynesian one, so it's not customary at all.

But did Bellingshausen see Maori using nose sticks? Melanesians used nose sticks! It is possible Polynesians used them but there is no record of it anywhere we can find. For the insertion of decorative objects through the nose, perforation of the septum or of one or both of the wings, or alae (or both procedures combined), was widespread among South American Indians, Melanesians, and inhabitants of India and Africa. So did Rangitane always use nose sticks. I do not think so. I think they copied what they saw used when they moved south to defeat those already there in (the north of the southern island where so many non-Polynesian artifacts exist). We think it likely they coped what they saw, in the same way Maori copied the spiral - for no spirals exist in Polynesian. But they do in Melanesia. Are you seeing things a little different to what you were taught yet?

Nose sticks are just another small clue as to why Marlborough/Nelson has so many non Polynesian artifacts that do not fit the Polynesian narrative. If we listed all the artifacts, stories and clues we would be at about 33 cases of non-Polynesian influence in the area.