1835: Moriori Comet of Carnage
November 19, 2019
By AHNZ
Today in New Zealand history, 19 November, 1835, Moriori culture reached the highest point it ever would achieve. Everything was downhill from here. At the same moment, Halley’s Comet also reached its closest point to our sun (perihelion) and so shone its brightest.
Captain George Vancouver discovered the Moriori’s home in 1791, calling it the Chatham Islands. To the peace-loving inhabitants it was Rekohu, Misty Sun. Perhaps it was a prophesy? What is Halley’s Comet but ice and dust and mist from the sun? The Morioris fell over themselves to be non-confrontational and people-pleasing toward these British, as if they’d left their testosterone behind when they migrated. Perhaps in another case of Island Gigantism, the Moriori Culture had grown gigantic in passivity and supplication. That was fine for them but to a new predator arriving, the Maori, they were ready for the taking.
Taranaki Apocalypse
Taranaki Maori faced the greatest apocalyptic disaster in their history over the fighting season of 1831/2. The future Maori King, Potatau Te Wherowhero, genocidally swept down from the north. Only by allying themselves with Anglo Saxon New Zealanders, chiefly Dicky Barrett, did this tribe survive the massacres. After the Siege of Otaka (1832) the Taranaki lands were abandoned as unsafe wastland just as Auckland had been. Mass exodus from the area headed for what would become the safe harbour Wellington.
What next for these displaced people? Some of these displaced refugees eventually wandered back to Taranaki some 30 years later to found Parihaka but they were much too late. Others sought to do to others what the Waikato Maoris had done to them. The Taranaki looked at Halley’s Comet and associated it with the sign of their new conquest. They had survived being on the receiving end of apocalypse and now it was time to deal some out! A new comet in the western sky must have seemed to mark the way.
A Comet To Light The Way
I can find no reports to prove Halley’s Comet was seen and reacted to by people in New Zealand. It certainly would have been visible, as those in Australia observed at the time. It remains a speculation that the comet was an inspiration for fear among the Morioris or for conquest for the ex-Taranaki. The comet would have been a very useful navigational aid for the invaders sailing to the offshore islands they intended to subjugate.
We do have these insights from another comet’s being viewed, 30 years later…
Comet spotted on the way to Taupo and visible over several nights…”‘appears to hang directly over Taranaki, the hotbed of Kingism and rebellion…Kingites triumphantly point to the protecting finger of God indicating the new Zion of His chosen people, the Queenites retort that it is the avenging sword of the angel Gabriel hanging over the devoted heads of the misguided men ‘
“Meanwhile the suggestion which we ventured to hazard to the effect that the self-same comet, seen from Taranaki, would appear to be far away over the sea, is treated as downright heresy…It was no use asking the Pakehas, for it is well known that white men are pitifully ignorant of the meaning of omens.” – Ref. A Ride through the Disturbed Districts of New Zealand; Meade (1870)
Halley’s Comet. — This interesting stranger is now become distinctly visible to the naked eye…it is very easily found a little before, or about the end of twilight, in the Western sky, and will probably become in a short time, more conspicuous…. On November 17th, it will be in perihelion (according to our eminent and highly talented Astronomer at the Parra-matta Observatory), after which, probably, it will shine with its greatest splendour.” –The Australian (23 October, 1835,) Trove
Fair to say, then, that the previous generation of Taranaki Maoris would have made their own minds up about what the great comet portended and that it wouldn’t have been anything trifling.
Chocolate House
The Taranaki Maori’s name for Rekohu/Chatham Islands is Wharekauri. A simple Google translation of this name is “chocolate house.” However correct that may or may not be, it’s true that Rekohu became the Taranaki invader’s candy store. When the first wave of Maori invaders arrived on 19 November, the Morioris both literally and figuratively became snacks…
“An organized resistance by the Moriori could still then have defeated the Maori, who were outnumbered two to one. However, the Moriori had a tradition of resolving disputes peacefully. They decided in a council meeting not to fight back but to offer peace, friendship, and a division of resources.”
“Before the Moriori could deliver that offer, the Maori attacked en masse. Over the course of the next few days, they killed hundreds of Moriori, cooked and ate many of the bodies, and enslaved all the others, killing most of them too over the next few years as it suited their whim. A Moriori survivor recalled, ‘[The Maori] commenced to kill us like sheep….'”; Diamond (1997)
Just as the Moriori hunter-gatherers wiped out the indigenous swan, Maoris wiped out the Morioris.
“In late 1835 about 900 Taranaki Maori armed with guns, clubs and axes invaded. Over the course of the next few days, they killed hundreds of Morioris, cooked and ate many of the bodies, and enslaved all the others, killing most of them over the next few years as it suited their whim. Treating enslaved humans like sheep, picking them off for food as and when required, was the Maori way back then. This was far from out of the ordinary…the assimilation of the Morioris was performed by prima nocta and genocide.” – 1835: Among The Trees; AHNZ
Aftermath
It is no longer Politically Correct to point out the total genocide of the Morioris at the hands of Maori yet it did happen. Until revisionism from about 30 years ago everyone accepted this and it was taught to children in schools.
The concern seems to be that wrong or irresponsible conclusions will be drawn about Maori if the truth is told. So, instead of challenging these perceived conclusions (“all Maoris are bad,” or something?) in their own right the entire premise- truth and all- must be uprooted. For those caught out by this historical Double Think the Moriori Genocide is confusing to talk about right now.
After 1835 the Taranaki invaders fell into fighting among themselves, a conflict that spilt over to destroy a French whaler, Jean Bart, in the process. The vengeful French, who were potentially part-owners of New Zealand, bombarded the island’s settlements¹ to ashes and mopped up with an attack party (1839.)
What remained was annexed by New Zealand in 1842, bringing the islands in as part of this nation finally². Oddly enough, National 5.0 apologised on behalf of their 1842 selves for not intervening at this point to abolish slavery at the remote and bombarded Chathams³.
The Chathams really are part of New Zealand now because they’re being used as a playable piece in the Great Treaty Settlement Grievance Industry. After so many years of compensation and re-compensation, apology and re-apology it’s getting hard for politicians to find new grievances. National 5.0 and Labour 6.0 even had to help “discover” a lost tribe in order to keep going. Certainly they were not going to let the fact that the Chathams were not even part of New Zealand in 1840 when The Treaty was signed keep it from being subject to it!
With so much money at stake, people who say they are from the Taranaki invasion tribe and even those who have ‘discovered’ they are part of the invaded Moriori tribe are lining up to get paid…
- When Jesse visited the Chatham Islands recently, he met an interracial guy.
- Some of that guy’s DNA was passed on from someone who was Moriori.
- And, that guy has (recently) decided to identify as Moriori.
- (Another recent event: $18,000,000 payout to those who identify as Moriori.)
Enjoy your cultural fluidity. Humans can do that. Gender fluidity too, I guess. But you can’t change what race or sex you are just by mental concentration. No matter how much they pay you.- AHNZ (July 2019)
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Note: The second wave of attack arrived on 5 December. Again, using the stolen ship Rodney
1 Seeing this retaliation coming, some of the Taranaki (ie Matioro) fled the islands with his family and a selection of Moriori slaves. They stay away for some 14 years while this whole French thing blows over; Ref. Far from home, part 2; O’Connor; Stuff
2 The Port Nicholson Settlers had already tried to do this
Ref. 1842: Crown admits failing to stop Maori from ‘enslaving’ Moriori; AHNZ
Ref. Guns, germs and steel’; J. Diamond (1997)
Image ref. Halley’s Comet in 1986; NASA; cnet.com
Note 2023: Google Translate no longer turns ‘Wharekauri’ in to ‘Chocolate House’ so must have been updated to get rid of this Politically Incorrect Problematic output. I can find nobody else translating the word this way which would betray a startling appetite for conquest. Maoris called the natives “black fellows” (Ngare Paraiwhara) and chocolate is black. Kauri wood is also dark like chocolate. Also, kauri was the Maori version of chewing gum so perhaps perceived Moriori as lollies on legs? They certainly acted as if these were the words they believed. ‘Confectionary House’ might be a good translation and in keeping with Maori’s love of macabre wordplay.
- Subnote: ‘Ngare Paraiwhara’ translates via Google Translate to ‘Software Errors’ which is another ‘problematic’ linguistic outcome of Maori for suggesting the Moriori were genetic mistakes or errors in creation itself. Moriori did literally have a reputation for being lazy, dirty, and stunted.
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