Moriori
The Moriori are the first settlers of the Chatham Islands. They are Polynesians who came from the New Zealand mainland by at least about 1500 AD, and possibly around the mid-15th century. The settlers' culture diverged from mainland Māori, and they developed a distinct Moriori language, mythology, artistic expression and way of life. Around 700 people identify as Moriori, most of whom no longer live on the Chatham Islands. During the late 19th century some prominent anthropologists proposed that Moriori were pre-Māori settlers of mainland New Zealand, and possibly Melanesian in origin; this hypothesis has been discredited by archaeologists since the early 20th century, but continued to be referred to by critics of the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process into the 21st century.
Early Moriori formed tribal groups based on eastern Polynesian social customs and organisation. Later, a prominent pacifist culture emerged; this was known as the law of nunuku, based on the teachings of the 16th century Moriori leader Nunuku-whenua. This culture made it easier for Taranaki Māori invaders to massacre them in the 1830s during the Musket Wars. This was the Moriori genocide, in which the Moriori were either murdered or enslaved by members of the Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama iwi, killing or displacing nearly 95% of the Moriori population.
The Moriori, however, were not extinct, and gained recognition as New Zealand's second indigenous people during the next century. Their culture and language underwent a revival, and Moriori names for their islands were prioritised. In February 2020, the New Zealand government signed a treaty with tribal leaders, giving them rights enshrined in law and the Moriori people at large an apology for the past actions of Māori and European settlers. The Crown returned stolen remains of those killed in the genocide, and gifted NZ$18 million in reparations. On 23 November 2021, the New Zealand government passed in law the treaty between Moriori and the Crown. The law is called the Moriori Claims Settlement Act. It includes an agreed summary history that begins with the words "Moriori karāpuna were the waina-pono of Rēkohu, Rangihaute, Hokorereoro, and other nearby islands. They arrived sometime between 1000 and 1400 AD."
History
Origin
The Moriori are descended from the East Polynesians who settled New Zealand and from whom the Māori also descended. A group of New Zealand Polynesians migrated from mainland New Zealand to the Chatham Islands. Traditions of Moriori genealogy and some features of artefacts suggest that some arrivals may have come directly to the Chathams Islands from East Polynesia. The Chathams are no further from Rarotonga than the Coromandel coast is, and it is possible that they were settled separately during the Polynesian exploration of the South Pacific, with most of the immigrants coming from New Zealand later. It is clear from artefacts and linguistic evidence that the final migration was from New Zealand. Artefacts include obsidian from Mayor Island and argillite from Nelson-Marlborough. The Moriori language is closer to the Maori language than to any other Polynesian language, and the two languages share innovations absent from other Polynesian languages.The time of human arrival in the Chathams is uncertain. It was by at least about 1500 AD, which is the earliest that cultural remains have been radiocarbon dated to, but artefacts similar to ones that were found in mainland New Zealand and are a century or more older suggest that it was probably earlier. Richards assumed that it was between 1400 and 1500, and proposed that it was around 1450. The combination of linguistic and skeletal similarities with Māori of the South Island, and prevailing winds and currents, suggest the settlers likely came from south of Cook Strait. Writer Michael King suggested that Moriori likely lack genetic diversity, which points to there being only one arrival, possibly with just one canoe. Further guesswork points to that arrival being a trading canoe or canoes from the far south that was blown off course while travelling northwards: it could have been taken eastward along the existing ocean current to the Chathams. Archaeological discoveries imply they settled first on Pitt Island before moving to Chatham Island. The Chathams seem to be the last Polynesian islands to have been settled.
Most of what else is known about the pre-contact Moriori, their culture and language is a matter of conjecture, because so much evidence has been lost. After the 1835 Māori invasion, all Moriori were either killed, died of newly introduced diseases, or were enslaved, and the language and culture of the survivors became intermingled with the Māori language and society before records were made by Europeans.
Adapting to local conditions
The Chathams are colder and less hospitable than the land the original settlers left behind, and although abundant in resources, these were different from those available where they had come from. The Chathams proved unsuitable for the cultivation of most crops known to Polynesians, and the Moriori adopted a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Food was almost entirely marine-sourced – protein and fat from fish, fur seals, and the fatty young of sea birds. The islands supported about 2,000 people. This lifestyle is confirmed by early European accounts, with one recording that:Lacking resources of cultural significance such as greenstone and plentiful timber, they found outlets for their ritual needs in the carving of dendroglyphs. Typically, most Moriori dendroglyphs depict a human form, but there are also other patterns depicting fish and birds. Some of these carvings are protected by the Hāpūpū / J M Barker Historic Reserve.
As a small and precarious population, Moriori embraced a pacifist culture that rigidly avoided warfare, replacing it with dispute resolution in the form of ritual fighting and conciliation. The ban on warfare and cannibalism is attributed to their ancestor Nunuku-whenua.
This enabled the Moriori to preserve what limited resources they had in their harsh climate, avoiding waste through warfare. However, this lack of training in warfare also led to their later near-destruction at the hands of invading North Island Māori.
Moriori castrated some male infants in order to control population growth.
European contact (1791–1835)
The Moriori lived in isolation from the outside world until 1791, when the first Europeans arrived. They were the crew of, which arrived by chance on 29 November 1791 while on its voyage to the northern Pacific from England, via Dusky Sound. The Chatham's captain, William R. Broughton, named the island after John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham and claimed it for Great Britain. The landing party came to shore in Kaingaroa Harbour on the far Northeast coast of Chatham Island. The Moriori retreated into the forest when the Europeans landed. Seventy years later the Europeans would be recalled in Moriori oral tradition as containing the god of fire, given the pipes they were smoking, and likely female from the clothes they were wearing. It was this interpretation that led to the men returning from the forest to meet the landing party. A brief period of hostility was quickly calmed by the crew putting gifts on the end of Moriori spears, though attempts at trade were unsuccessful. After exploring the area for water the crew again became fearful of Moriori aggression. Some misunderstanding led to an escalation of violence and one Moriori was shot and killed. HMS Chatham then left the island with all its crew. Both the diary of Broughton and local oral tradition record that both sides regretted the incident and to some extent blamed themselves for overreacting.It was this regret in part that led to good relations when the next ships arrived in the islands sometime between 1804 and 1807. They were sealers from Sydney and word of their welcome soon gave the Moriori a reputation of being friendly. During this time at least one Moriori visited the New Zealand mainland and returned home with knowledge of the Māori. As more ships came, sealing gangs were also left behind on the islands for months at a time. Sealers and whalers soon made the islands a centre of their activities, competing for resources with the native population. Pigs and potatoes were introduced to the islands. However, the seals that had religious significance and provided food and clothing to the Moriori were all but wiped out. European men intermarried with Moriori. Māori arrivals created their own village at Wharekauri which became the Māori name for the Chatham Islands.
The local population was estimated at 1,600 in the mid-1830s with about 10% and 20% of the population having died from infectious diseases such as influenza.
Invasion by Taranaki Māori (1835–1868)
In 1835 some Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, originally from Taranaki, but living in Wellington for about a decade, invaded the Chathams. On 19 November 1835, the brig Lord Rodney, a hijacked European ship, arrived carrying 500 Māori with guns, clubs and axes, and loaded with 78 tonnes of potatoes for planting, followed by another load, by the same ship, of 400 more Taranaki Māori on 5 December 1835. With the arrival of the second group "parties of 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."A hui or council of all Moriori men was convened at the settlement called Te Awapatiki. Despite knowing that the Māori did not share their pacifism, and despite the argument by younger men that the principle of Nunuku was not appropriate now, two chiefs – Tapata and Torea – declared that "the law of Nunuku was not a strategy for survival, to be varied as conditions changed; it was a moral imperative." Although this council decided in favour of peace, the invading Māori inferred it was a prelude to war, as was common practice during the Musket Wars. This precipitated a massacre, most complete in the Waitangi area, followed by an enslavement of the Moriori survivors.
A Moriori survivor recalled: " commenced to kill us like sheep.... were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed – men, women and children indiscriminately." A Taranaki Māori conqueror explained, "We took possession... in accordance with our customs and we caught all the people. Not one escaped....." The invaders ritually killed some 10% of the population. Stakes were driven into some of the women, who were left to die in pain.
During the following enslavement the Taranaki Māori invaders forbade the speaking of the Moriori language. They forced Moriori to desecrate their sacred sites by urinating and defecating on them. Moriori were forbidden to marry Moriori or the Taranaki Māori, or to have children with each other. This was different from the customary form of slavery practised on mainland New Zealand. However, many Moriori women had children by their Māori masters. A small number of Moriori women eventually married either Māori or European men. Some were taken from the Chathams and never returned. In 1842 a small party of Māori and their Moriori slaves migrated to the subantarctic Auckland Islands, surviving for some 20 years on sealing and flax growing. Only 101 Moriori out of a population of about 2,000 were left alive by 1862, making the Moriori genocide one of the deadliest in history by percentage of the victim group.