1772: Marion Du Fresne’s Massacre
January 3, 2019
By AHNZ
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne was an early French explorer to New Zealand, visiting the Bay of Islands in May 1772. Initially, the crew of the two ships he commanded got on really well with the local Maoris. Then, without warning, de Fresne and 27 of his men were betrayed in an ambush and massacred then eaten.
Nasty wake-up call for the French! They re-group and get their own back on some 1,500 Maori warriors which, if nothing else, helps Maoris fear the French more than the English in future.
In the above painting from the 1840s* the scene centred on a trusting white man is poised for a violent re-evaluation of the Noble Savage conception of Maoris. As a commenter put it yesterday…
It is interesting to observe the Maori seemingly portrayed in the 1860ish crayon drawing by Meryon shown here are all knaves… evil faces, and one is about to bonk said Captain in his nut. And the so- called Marae building in the background has Ionic columns!
Yet when Du Fresne visited, Maori were regarded as Noble Savages, after Rousseau. In the drawing done almost a century after the massacre at Te Hue, they are instead shown as Savages, perhaps reflecting how Pakeha/ Euro NZers redefinded indigenous people here, once their population overtook the native population.- Chris Talbot Wilkie comment
Yeah it might be a redefinition innate to a demographic population ratio rebalancing. It might be a cognitive judgement generated out of subconscious instincts about how many European boots were on the ground.
Or, here’s another suggestion..
Maybe that Romantic Noble Savage Frenchy SJW 1770s dream melted under the lived experience of being betrayed, ambushed, massacred, and eaten by Papa Smurf and his thousand deadly minions?
What do you think about that explanation for the changed aesthetic representation of Maoris?
Artists, sheesh! Am I right?
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* The library says 1840s. I don’t know why Wilkie prefers 1860
image ref. Meryon; Alexander Turnbull Library
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Quite a history about the Maori – put the Inca’s or the Aztecs to shame in degeneration. Outcast from the Cook Islands during the 13th century as weaker primitive Neolithic people by later waves of Polynesians (Maori were from the original wave of primitive Polynesians pushed right out across the Eastern Pacific by successive stronger more advanced groups arriving from the west). They were outcast on rafts and some floated to the North East Coast of NZ driven by the South Equatorial Current and were stranded for 500 years. The weaker were pushed down to the South Island or Chathams etc. So the South Island Maori (had their own language) were the weakest of the weak. They were captured and eaten as ‘Slave flesh’ by the northern Maori doing raids. (Well they all ate each other – 80% of Maori pre European were dark skinned easily fattened slaves farmed and eaten by a lighter skinned ‘Ariki’ thin wiry elite royal caste). So it was with some righteousness as well as British cunning that they armed the southern Maori who then with muskets launched a genocidal war on the north.. That plus measles & flu halved the Maori population and removed most of the elite. The British then liberated the slaves and outlawed cannibalism. The northern Maori fought with the British against the south bad west Maori ‘rebels’. The Maori sued for peace and a treaty was signed that removed all sovereignty and made them subjects to the English crown where the English would protect them from each other. Land could only be sold to or via the Crown. Maori could live on their reservations with native custom but none did. The treaty of Waitangi is strikingly clear in that the Maori cede sovereignty completely and become citizens of Great Britain – all 3 clauses lock that in. Nothing in today’s ‘Maori’ culture is authentic. The music – all European (Maoris did not have tonal music, the songs are missionary tunes or introduced – Poi dance is from Islands and Stick dance from old Malaya. The carvings and art – all European – Arabesques that was the fashion at the time. Original Maori had limited dash carving and no painting of objects. No written language – all the syntax & grammar plus vowel inflection is European. No technology – some lagoon canoes and wood or stone Neolithic tools. No food sources – like pigs or crops – they left that all behind, all they had was a weak inbred fox (now extinct), some rats and a weak dismal pacific yam. They ate out all the bird-life including 10 species of Moa and 46 other bird species, didn’t know how to farm the sea as were island people and so they turned to societal cannibalism. Today – no full blood or half blood left. No genuine tradition and almost all are offspring of Maori slave females sold to white settlers for muskets or food. -So more fake than the ‘Sioux’ or ‘Cherokee’ or ‘Crow’ who had at least retained some genuineness about who they were and their history. -Everything you ‘saw or experienced’ is fake. A totally convected disneyfied tokenistic set of inventions fueled by a grievance culture of mixed-race imposters fetishing a false past bad history because it pays benefits.
‘This Horrid Practice’ – Professor Paul Moon, “A Savage Country” Professor Paul Moon ‘Behind The Tattooed Face’ – Heretaunga Pat Baker, ‘Anthropology In The South Seas’ – H D Skinner
You can’t farm people as a staple food because they grow too slowly. But they could be an elite delicacy.
” So it was with some righteousness as well as British cunning that they armed the southern Maori who then with muskets launched a genocidal war on the north…halved the Maori population ”
Maybe you mean the other way around? What southerners conquered north?
“The northern Maori fought with the British against the south bad west Maori ‘rebels’. The Maori sued for peace and a treaty was signed”
You putting the Treaty of Waitangi after the Waikato War?
“The music – all European (Maoris did not have tonal music, the songs are missionary tunes or introduced”
Would like to learn more about that.
‘Behind the Tattooed Face’ is a novel isn’t it? Not a history reference.
Upoke is the term for Maori slaves. They were about 80% of the population prior to the Europeans. They were the primary source of protein in what was a horrific degeneration of Polynesian society into rampart structural cannibalism – a period of horror that lasted some 500 years until they were rescued by the European. The Maori had come with the original Polynesian caste structure of royals and bonded commoners after being outcast and set adrift on rafts to end up stranded in NZ.
Within a recorded period of about 8 generations this then degenerated into 9 different language groups ( no common language) and a horrific two tier ethnically and racially based caste structure.
– Ariki / from the original royal elite – these were documented and painted or drawn as lighter to white skinned, wiry, smaller boned, fine featured, thin nose, thin lipped, straight hair, anxious, aggressive cannibalistic ruling class. Upoke / from the original bonded commoners (such bonding or serfdom broke down in NZ as land was unconstrained) and slaves. Upoke or poke was used in conjunction with Kuku or Kiko ie a Upoke Kiko was slave flesh – or else poke singular or pokes group).
The Upoke slaves were the ‘wealth’ of the Maoris and raiding and capturing other clans and tribes Upoke was their primary industry. These Upoke were dark skinned, larger limbed, thick lipped, flat nosed, curly haired, easily fattened, low IQ and sedentary. The settlements of the Maoris (Pa’s) were in valley passes where they could anticipate attack from the sea and run into the bush behind. A Pa’s very design is as a cannibal storage camp of humans as slave eating flesh with perimeters controlling access and confining the slaves. Have a good look at the original designs of the Pa’s and what their real purpose was. Upoke females were normally killed and eaten at birth but on arrival of the Europeans -( trade was for Upoke boiled male heads carved with European arabesques eg ‘Maori Moko designs – all European) but with a shortage of that & the trade being policed – the Maori Ariki turned to selling young Upoke slave girls to the sailors and settlers for guns. Often as records show, the Ariki would line up the young Upoke on the beach or field and then tell the Europeans they would all be slaughtered and eaten unless the European met their demands. As such the European settlements were flooded with Upoke slaves, mainly young females being the demand. The Europeans bred with these slave females gave immunity to the mixed race offspring disease such as measles & flu that full blood Maori did not have. Again this is subject to much record (1880 onwards) about the ‘revitalization’ and out breeding of the Maori being their only path of survival / there was much concern the Maori would become extinct so all Europeans & Maori were much focused on such outbreeding to ensure that a trace of Maori may exist in the future. By 1903 there were no Ariki left and only 14 very old full blood Upoke. The last full blood died in 1944 – as reported by the minister of Maori affairs much later to the NZ parliament. The marked differences between the Ariki and the slave caste were much commented on, discussed and captured in paintings & portraits. Almost all part Maori today would be offspring of Europeans & Upoke slaves – the filters of inter Maori fratricide between the Ariki clans & disease acted as a filter to remove both Ariki and full bloods.
“A Savage Country” Professor Paul Moon’ This Horrid Practice’ – Professor Paul Moon, ‘Behind The Tattooed Face’ – Heretaunga Pat Baker, ‘Anthropology In The South Seas’ – H D Skinner
No I don’t accept that people can be a primary source of protein at this level of organisation. But I’d be happy for you to argue otherwise.
Again, who are these southern Maoris who you say invaded north?
And, again, isn’t ‘Behind the Tattooed Face’ a fictional novel so not a good choice of scholarly reference?