Maori Long Essay

Student: 1448783 Evan Cooper

Essay Question: Describe Māori enterprise during the early contact period and comment on the impact of colonisation on the Māori economy. Give a detailed example.

In 1800, Māori faced an exciting new world. Early contact with the Europeans exposed and provided new technologies and hence, new economic opportunities for them. By 1900, the impacts of colonisation had devastated Māori society and the Māori economy, almost beyond repair. Prior to early contact and significant colonisation, the Māori economy was one predominantly characterised by subsistence level production, concepts of tikanga

(cultural procedures) Māori, and communal ownership . Based on the current status of

Māori people economically, the impact of colonisation on the Māori economy has proven to be largely negative, with Māori social statistics today lagging far behind those of non-Māori at all socio-economic levels. European contact, the subsequent colonisation of New

Zealand and its effects on the Māori economy can be defined in four distinct phases. The early contact period, the colonisation period, the 50 year period after the defeat of the

Kīngitanga, and the Māori renaissance. Each of these periods brought with themselves their own distinct effects on Māori people, and hence their economic wellbeing.

Abel Tasman, a Dutch sailor had discovered New Zealand and made first contact with the

Māori in 1642, though this was a short lived visitation and had near no impact on the Māori economy at the time. In 1769 an English sailor, Captain James Cook, sighted New

Zealand. He documented his journey on the Endeavour in personal journals, providing insight to the plentiful, untapped resources this new land possessed, as well as the indigenous peoples which inhabited it. Captain Cook’s reports of a new land, and its plentiful resources; such as timber and flax for ships, prompted a huge number of sealers and whalers, looking to exploit these uncontested resources, to immigrate to New Zealand. The first recorded sealers arrived in the Doubtful Sounds in 1792 and were predominantly gangs of ex-convicts from Sydney (Sealers and Whalers - pre 1840 contact unknown).

Seal pelts were sold in China and Britain, predominantly used to make waterproof clothing.

The sealers’ effects on the Māori economy were not as significant or beneficial for Māori as the whaling industry’s. They engaged much less in trading with Māori, requiring only their own tools (Sealers and Whalers - pre 1840 contact unknown). They were viewed predominantly as “thieves” by iwi (tribes), hugely devastating the population of seals in

New Zealand, whilst providing little in return for Māori economically (Sealers and Whalers - pre 1840 contact unknown).

Whalers on the other hand provided many economic opportunities for Māori, through trading, technological benefits and employment. Whale oil was highly valuable as a lubricant for machinery among other uses. Kororāreka provided a hub for deep sea whalers from 1799, providing local hapū (clans) in the area with many economic opportunities. For their long term voyages, whalers required many goods and services, including but not limited to fresh water and food, as well as crewman, which the Māori provided for them in exchange for goods such as potatoes, alcohol, tobacco, pigs, blankets and iron tools. Services such as prostitution were often traded by Māori for European resources as well, the adoption of short term wives by whalers was also common (Sealers and Whalers - pre 1840 contact unknown), this proved to have huge implications on the

Māori economy due to the huge spread of venereal disease causing infertility and death.

Māori timber was very highly sought after in ship building and maintenance, deep sea whalers and shore whalers both required timber and flax ropes to maintain their whaling vessels, and traders exported huge amounts of timber (mainly kauri (a large forest tree) and tōtara (a large forest tree)) for mast production and flax ropes for use in the shipping industry (Sealers and Whalers - pre 1840 contact unknown).

Coupled with the influx of sealers and whalers, a large number of missionaries immigrated, whom felt it their Christian duty to convert the “uncivilised” indigenous Māori, religiously and therefore culturally. Many missionaries resorted to trading in order to obtain financial security and hence goods and services to survive (Missionary Influence and the Maori

Reaction 2009). Some Māori such as Hongi Hika, the rangatira (chief) of the Ngā Puhi iwi, utilised missionaries (such as Thomas Kendall) and their ability to provide Western resources in order to obtain weapons and hence mana, the most sought after weapon was the musket (Thomas Kendall with Hongi Hika unknown). The demand for muskets was so strong that Hongi Hika, whilst in England in 1820, traded land in Hokianga for an estimated

500 muskets with Baron Charles de Thierry of France. Hongi Hika used this advantage in military power to acquire lands from other iwi and hapū to the south, and hence resources, growing his iwi’s economy. Becoming economically superior to other iwi provided a means for Hongi Hika to acquire mana (inherited status) (The Musket Wars unknown).

Prior to the early contact with the Europeans, the Māori economy was predominantly based around the concepts of subsistence and utu (reciprocity). Hapū produced enough resources to satisfy their own operational requirements, and on some occasions, hapū would produce enough resources to trade with other hapū and iwi to satisfy utu, and sometimes in order to practice manaaki (to take care of). The arrival of sealers, whalers and traders presented a new technological and economic potential for Māori, whom quickly adopted the concept of profit through trading with Pākehā. Financial and material benefits from trading with the early colonists allowed Māori to further community, culture and their economic positions (Sealers and Whalers - pre 1840 contact unknown).