Moriori start to unveil a myth

Tu Tangata, Issue 34, 1 February 1987, Page 22

Moriori start to unveil a myth

The unveiling by the Prime Minister of a memorial statue of the last full-blooded Moriori is just the first shot in a campaign to clear the Moriori name. And the man leading the fight is Maui Solomon, the grandson of that last full-blooded Moriori, Tame Horomoana Rehe, also known as Tommy Solomon.

For Maui it is a personal crusade to set the history books and what may be much harder, several generations of NZer minds straight regarding the Moriori. He says historians like Elsdon Best and William Baucke, who published in the early 1900’s, had studied the last remaining Moriori people and found them to be a dispirited people in tradition and outlook. Maui says the historians’ writings were encouraged by other enthologists and anthropologists intrigued by this ‘vanishing tribe’, in the isolated Chatham Islands.

He says Victorian racial superiority theories also helped fuel the suppositions made that the Moriori were the original inhabitants of New Zealand and they were driven out by the Maori to the Chathams and finally slaughtered there in the mid 1800’s. Maui quotes Dr G. Sutton, an Auckland anthropologist who says this myth of the Moriori inhabiting NZ was dismissed by scholars thirty years ago.

Dr Sutton says the Moriori were a Polynesian people who settled in the Chathams and by 1500’s had a highly adaptable population. Previous contact with mainland New Zealand was cut off by a mini ice age in about 1400 that brought on harsher climatic conditions.

Maui says on the one hand the existence of the Moriori is seen by some Pakeha to dispute Maori land claims, while some Maori bitterly resent deathsquad comparisons over the extinction of the Moriori.

He says it is true the Maori arrival in the Chathams in 1835 undermined the Moriori culture. But that decimation had already started some thirty years before when William Broughton on board the H.M.S. Chatham discovered the Moriori and abundant whales and seals. The Europeans that followed brought diseases such as influenza as well as their own culture.

It’s facts like these that Maui Solomon would like to see in school text books so that today’s generation can get it right. But Maui is having problems with the education system. They won’t play ball. Tu Tangata spoke with some teachers about what was being taught in schools today about the Moriori. The absence of any literature plus the reluctance to be quoted were the two main

features. One history teacher said he had made it his business to bone up on the correct history but that the old misconceptions in the Moriori myth still lingered on amongst some older teachers. He said younger teachers had to do their own research if they were to enlighten young minds to the true place of the Moriori in New Zealand history. In the wake of the Education Minister’s zeal for the inclusion of taha

Maori in the school curriculum, Tu Tangata decided to find out the Education Department’s stand on Moriori culture. We spoke with Mr Ken Miller, deputy director of school curriculum division; Mr David Wood, education officer for history and Mr Greg Taylor, inspector of secondary schools, Auckland. We put to them Maui Solomon’s statements about the poor performance of the school system.

Maui Solomon “I believe there are some NZer’s, both Maori and Pakeha who will bring up the Moriori when it is to their advantage and politically expedient to do so. Take last years’ case in Auckland”. (1985)

Ken Miller states, “that to his knowledge the incident that received publicity in the Auckland area in the early part of 1985 was a minor incident and no more than that. An approach was made by persons/person to a local newspaper reporter regarding the subject of Moriori being taught at a local school. An Auckland secondary school inspector acted on the complaint and checked all text books in the schools in his area, but could not find any reference to Moriori subjects in any text books being used by pupils. But this was a minor incident as I have already stated”.

Maui Solomon, “The Pakeha uses the Moriori against the Maori to dispute land claims, the Maori say the Moriori are a Pakeha created myth. Frankly as a Moriori descendant it makes me angry. I agree it’s a myth that the Moriori were the first inhabitants of New Zealand driven out by the Maori. But they did exist. Moriori were the first inhabitants of the Chathams where they developed their own distinctive culture”.

Ken Miller, “The education department has to be careful that we do not become involved in contentious issues or academic dissention that is pres-

ently taking place regarding Moriori and their origins. We can not afford to get involved. It is not our job as many people seem to think, to change or shape society. What is prepared for the syllabus for schools has to be accepted by teachers in the classroom, both as professional teachers and NZers. What they teach in schools has to be acceptable to parents in the range of knowledge, behavioural and belief systems of the consumers, i.e. the parents and the pupils. Any changes or additions made to the syllabus have to be acceptable to society”.

Maui Solomon, “I’m worried that when my kids go to school that they are going to hear all these myths and stories surrounding the Moriori, we have to do something to set the record straight. Unless the seeds of knowledge are planted in children at an early age they will grow up knowing nothing about their ancestors”. Ken Miller, “Maybe we can no longer afford to stand back and wait for the dust to settle around the academics. Maybe we have to consider the sensitive issue of Moriori. Quite possibly people in the Chatham Islands will demand a revision of the curriculum

regarding the Moriori. I don’t know, I have had no contact with the Chathams. Presumably there is a common group of thought that the consumer, parents, pupils will express. Now if that is the case then local teachers, parents, pupils can engage in local study groups. Talking to elders and kaumatua, learning history as the Chatham Islanders themselves perceive to be the truth. From there it is a matter of sub-committees and study reports which lead on to filtering and examining in greater detail before any inclusion or change is made to the curriculum”.

Maui Solomon says, “that it doesn’t surprise him in the slightest that people are writing misinformed letters to the newspapers about Moriori because misinformation is still being passed on in schools. Teachers don’t often have a good understanding of Maori pre-history and the place of the Moriori”.

Ken Miller, “The system allows quite a lot of freedom to the teachers in junior schools to find what he/she thinks is appropriate to teach. However in senior levels, history is taught in a different manner, we do have prescribed various grades. But there is no extensive coverage relating to specific topics. The crucial factor here being exams. If you have too big a coverage it

is almost impossible to test everything. So what we cover is what we think is important for NZ school pupils to know, given the limitations of examinations”.

Maui Solomon states, “that you won’t read anything about the Moriori in current school text books as they are not mentioned”.

Ken Miller, “The education department neither supplies or prescribes

any text books on NZ history. We have not been approached for information on the Moriori. To include any new material in the syllabus must take the form of the following. We have feedback from teachers, i.e. this syllabus is out of date, it needs revising. Then there is academic pressure that says a specific subject is out of date, that it needs revision to come into line with current line of thought with universities. Then there is political pressure as there has been with Taha Maori.

Maoridom have motivated political interests and bought to bear political pressure. So that requests from the Minister and the tangata whenua to revise and include Polynesian studies. But there is never just one thrust to do this. From the various contacts that we have there is a whole range of influences and pressures. If there is a demand from society, broad sweeping, then we must do something. There has never been a request to include Moriori in the school syllabus”.