1989: Moriori- A People Resurrected
December 7, 2023
By AHNZ
On 29 December, 1986, Prime Minister David Lange unveiled a life-size statue of the last Moriori, Tommy Solomon, who had died in 1933. He told the crowd that Moriori were not a myth but that “We cannot make them live again, but we can tell the truth about what happened to them.” It was clear, and official, that the race was dead.
And, yet, in the 2020s there are people in New Zealand again who claim to be Moriori. Despite not being part of New Zealand and not signing the Treaty of Waitangi the National 5.0 Government Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Christopher Finlayson handed over $18,000,000 to “settle the historical Treaty of Waitangi claims of Moriori.” What’s going on? Ref. Crown admits failing to stop Māori from ‘enslaving’ Moriori, Newshub (2017)
The major catalyst for this change was Michael King’s 1989 book Moriori – A People Rediscovered. A book that resurrected a dead race. No politician, big time or small, can afford to let a crisis go to waste. Wherever there’s scope for some moral claim there’s a pretense at spending, and laundering, other people’s money. Yours.
The Chatham Islands had, to this point, for generations, lived together as one community in peace. Suddenly, now, there was a bounty of money and power going for those who could self-identify in the required grouping. Who should get the land? Who should be in charge of vast fishing catchments? The temptation was too great. Besides, if stakeholders did not give in to temptation someone else would certainly make this Faustian deal with The State. Islanders now started turning on each other and even those who had been away from the Chathams for decades, or generations, “rediscovered” the connections that were now paying.
“There is now a group of Moriori descendants who are alive and well. Not only that, they say they’re the real tangata whenua of the Chatham Islands. This time they’ll fight.” Ref. Insight, National Radio (1989,) NZ Sound and Vision
“Nothing is left to-day of the Moriori society. It has vanished into history.” – The Extinct Moriori, vol2, No.29 Making New Zealand (1940)
“…Moriori…silence we attribute to the Waitaha, members of the Arawa canoe and the first southern settlers of the great Maori
migration, who exterminated those of this stone age people who were unable to escape to the Chatham Islands. But the Waitaha
are almost as obscure as the Moriori.” – Beyond the Waimakariri, Don Hawkins (1957)“The last so-called, pure-blooded ‘Moriori’ died in 1933.” – p255, Southwest Pacific, Kenneth Cumberland (ee1960)
“Friends. We are gathered here today, as you are all aware, to pay our last tributes and respects…It means not only the passing away by death of our late friend, but the passing away of a race of people. It is, therefore, a unique and historic occasion, and one that seldom arises in the history of mankind…Now he is gone, and the race, as a race, is extinct.” – Eulogy for Solomon, Resident Magistrate Ryan Holmes
“At the time of Broughton’s discovery there was a Moriori population estimated to be over 1,000, and sealers and whalers had bases there before the Maori invasion…Sealing and whaling stations had almost disappeared by 1861 when the total population was estimated at 413 Maoris, 160 Morioris, 17 half-castes, and 46 Europeans… The Morioris have disappeared.” – Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, Alexander McLintock (1966)
“The death of the Moriori must now be seen as one of the major events of New Zealand history. It was an episode of the same magnitude as the extinction of the Tasmanians or the Feugians…The Moriori extinction is strangely insulated from public concern..” – Douglas Sutton, Journal of the Polynesian Society (1980)
“Chatham Islanders have always regarded themselves as a tight, supportive, community different and remote from mainland New Zealand. It’s an island community which until recently has always put up an united front against the rest of New Zealand. From disputes over taxes and fishing quotas to postage rates. But this year’s Waitangi Tribunal claim is driving a wedge through he community.” – 22mins, Insight, Radio New Zealand (1989)
“Prater punched him in the jaw..He then alleges Solomon left him with a bloodied nose, abrasions to his temple and a black eye….Eyles says some factions wanted to sign up as many people as possible to maximise Treaty compensation.Thirty years ago, he says, Moriori had no land or assets and were not officially recognised as an iwi – today they have $53m worth of assets.” – Divided Tribe, Feuds and fisticuffs in the Chatham Islands, Stuff (2019)
There’s a recipe here involving Michael King’s book, government money, and the will power to cultural fluidity.
If people in the 2020s can change their gender by self-identifying as anything from man, to woman, or even sexually identifying as an apache attack helecopter then why not re-imagine a culture too?
This despite the fact that nobody with Moriori ancestry does not also have Anglo and/or Maori ancestry too. And, despite the language being dead for about 100 years. And, that the cultural mores and ancestral knowledge continuity was broken long before Tommy Solomon who lived as a European.
Tommy Solomon lived for a long time, publicly, as the known last Moriori. He played the part, he lived up to it, he never contradicted it. He didn’t care about any debate about any divisive debates but others would not follow his example. 50 Years after his death his views didn’t matter because Michael King had a book.
Various inter-racial New Zealanders weighed up their honor and decided it wasn’t worth as much as the money and power being offered by The State to turn on their brothers. The Government corrupts everything it touches.
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Michael King (in his budenovka Communist hat) with Dick Scott; Gil Hanly photo, 1987. Auckland War Memorial Museum; Colour by AHNZ (2023)
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