What did history say about the Moriori?

Tu Tangata, Issue 34, 1 February 1987, Page 24

What did history say about the Moriori?

The discovery of a dying race in the Chathams in the late 1800’s by European ethnologists, anthropologists was a cause for academic writings. German, Swedish, French and English students of the sciences descended on the few remaining Moriori to observe this unique race.

What they observed were the survivors of a proud race that in 1835 had numbered over two thousand, but by 1862 were down to thirty six.

Tame Horomoana Rehe was among the survivors who came under academic scrutiny. He died on March 19, 1933, the last full-blooded Moriori. Elsdon Best had this to say in 1915 about the Maruiwi, from whom he believed the Moriori were descended “. . . in appearance their folk are said to have been tall slim build, dark skin, having big or protuberant bones, flat faced, flat nosed, with upturned nostrils, their eyes are curiously restless and they had a habit of glancing sideways without turning the head, the hair in some cases stood upright, in others it was bushy”.

Another writer, William Baucke had a series of articles published in the NZ Herald in 1922. “Just consider the creature . . . hirsute, smoke grimmed, his summer dress either the skin he was born in with a loin mat for decency . . . and in the winter a seamless sealskin around his shoulders and encircling his waist”.

He goes on to state . . . “reeking of the putrid foods he loved so well . . . and a brute appetite for food, sex and sleep”. These articles were written at a time when there were few Moriori to observe. There are other writings in Maori in the Governor Grey collection held in Auckland that purport to be whakapapa of the Moriori. They are not first hand accounts and come from Maori who had settled in the Chathams and perhaps inter-married.

One whakapapa sighted by the writer mentions kaitangata, but it is unclear whether the fighting is between Maori

and Moriori or just Maori. The Polynesian Society Journal has many articles about the history of the Moriori from the turn of the century onwards, but the writer leans heavily on uncorroborated informers. These articles at least point to the probability of the Moriori arriving at the Chathams in their own waka at the time of the peopling of Aotearoa. An interesting description of the Moriori is the observation by Captain William Broughton of H.M.S. The Chatham who “discovered” the islands in 1791. He provided us with the earliest description of the Moriori. “. . . the men were of middling size, some stoutly made, well limbed and fleshy. Their hair, both of the head and beard was black and by some, worn

long. Young men had it tied up in a knot on the crown of their heads, intermixed with black and white feathers. Their skins, of a dark brown complexion were destitute of any marks (tattoo)”. Thank god for the logical and analytical mind of the navy. With reference to Best and Baucke n’ co the question must be asked why? Why some 30 years after their articles were rejected and theories disputed that many NZers still believe in the old hoary myths of the Moriori. Dr D. G. Sutton, an Auckland anthropologist, wrote an outstanding paper titled “The Whence Of The MORIORI”. NZ Journal of History April 1980 issue . . . the Maruiwi or tangata whenua, also known as the “great NZ myth”, was rejected by scholars over three decades ago, it still persists in the public mind and is in some school curriculae. The four major elements of the myth are: 1. The first occupants of New Zealand were either Melanesian or of

mixed Melanesia Polynesian origins, that is they were racially distinct from late settlers arriving from HAWAIKI. 2. They were also distinguishable from the Polynesians on the basis of language, their lack of horticulture, a nomadic lifestyle and their peacefulness.

3. Some of these people were forced to flee to the Chathams by the more assertive Polynesians who first arrived with the great navigators Kupe and Toi, then later in great numbers on the great fleet approx 1350 A.D. 4. Finally that the refugee descendants existed in an unchanging and simple nomadic lifestyle before the coming of the European, because of cultural conservatism, racial inferiority, the debilitating effects of isolation and an absence of raw material. Sutton in opposing these arguments says, there is no evidence to indicate that the first settlers of New Zealand were other than Polynesian.

Forest clearance horticulture suggests that gardening was successfully introduced before the suggested date of the great fleet. There is also anthropological evidence of considerable variations in New Zealand according to the nature of the region.

Nor where these people as peaceful as supposed. Skeletal remains have indicated some death by violence.

Sutton dismisses the view that the Moriori fled before the followers of Kupe, Toi and then the voyagers of the great fleet.

He refers to D. Simmons book “The Great New Zealand Myth” in which the writer concluded that he had “serious doubts about a great legendary fleet in 1150. The aboriginal inhabitants of the Chatham Islands were not, therefore “refugees, as argued in the Maruiwi myths says Sutton, if for no other reason the external military force from which they are supposed to have fled did not exist.

the Chathams and NZ. Developing a large number of tapu most of them relating to the environment, ensured a continual source of food and clothing. Tapu was also applied to social conditions and behaviour. A peace covenant.

The legendary Moriori chief Nunuku was roused from his sleep to the sounds of fighting. He commanded that both parties lay down their arms. He instructed them to burn their weapons. In the future if any one had a dispute they were to fight the offending party with a long wooden rod, at the first sign of blood the duel was to halt with honour satisfied.

Thus they lost the art of warfare and were vulnerable to invasion. For approximately 600 years the Moriori settled tribal disputes in this manner.

The Fatal Impact The missionaries recorded 2000 Moriori approximately, distributed in six tribal groups. The H.M.S. “Chatham” captained by William Broughton found the Chathams in 1791. The whalers and the sealers were to follow in his footsteps bringing in their diseased-infested vessels the infections of influenza and

May 1884 Tame Horomoana Rehe is born. His death in 1933 some fifty years later was to be the last of the Moriori. Tame Horomoana Rehe (Tommy Solomon) was a successful farmer and prominent businessman. His physical size and jovial character attracted attention wherever he went.

Mainland people knew him as the last Moriori alive. The only survivor of 22 children who died in infancy. He spoke Maori and commanded the English language.

When Tommy died on 19 March 1933 he was survived by his wife, Whakarewa Rene and their five children. His death received little attention on the mainland. Brief obituary notices appearing in the press of the day are the only historical recording of a major event in New Zealand history. Hugh Laracy, senior lecturer in history at the university of Auckland and a specialist in Pacific affairs, believes the Moriori story has been complicated by Pakeha not Polynesian mythology. “Percy Smith claims there were a people in New Zealand before the Maori, people who were, shortish, dark, fuzzy haired of a Melanesian kind. They were assumed to be a more

He disputes the claim that the Moriori lived a simple unchanging existence by citing the highly adaptable population in the late or classic phase of Moriori culture beginning about 1500.

They lived in about 40 small settlements at the time of first contact with the European in the late 18th century. Depending heavily on the fur seal for food clothing and bone tools, they also caught birds and fish and gathered vegetables.

Communal leadership was decided by ability rather than heredity. The Moriori were coastal hunters and gatherers who hunted seal and collected vegetables from within small territories. They adapted from a previous sub tropical climate to a sub antarctic environment.

The onset of a mini ice age in about 1400 A.D. brought harsher climatic and sea conditions and effectively cut off any form of further contact between

measles. Having no form of immunisation to these European infections the Moriori quickly succumbed as the diseases spread swiftly. The seals were slaughtered in great number with the seal colonies abandoning their traditional grounds. In 1835 when the Maori arrived, the decision was made by the Moriori not to fight the migratory force. At that stage the Moriori population numbered 2000. In 1850 when the missionaries arrived they numbered 1600. The population was on a downward plunge as was the despair of the Moriori. Forced to break centuries old tapu, most believed their gods had deserted them and just turned their backs to the wall. Kogenge was the name of this sickness that was to see 1000 people die in the next thirty years. By 1862 36 only had survived. 7th

primitive kind of people. This is essentially a racist theory, the Maori was said to be lighter, superior in warfare to their backward predecessors so they conquered them and drove them off to the Chathams.

“Thus we have mythology associated with the whole business of the great fleet, of Maori conquering and displacing inferior people by right of conquest. This myth served in various ways to justify the Pakeha taking of the Maori land, because of the alleged treatment of the Moriori. The Moriori was not a defeated or inferior lot of refugees from the mainland, but people from east Polynesia who found their way to the Chathams and adapted the place to their own way. It gives them a more estimable status in the historical story - they don’t go down as a vanquished race”.