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Imagining Moriori Imagining Moriori A history of ideas of a people in the twentieth century ______________________________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in History in the University of Canterbury by Jacinta Blank University of Canterbury 2007 2 Acknowledgements Support from a number of people made the completion of this thesis possible. In particular, I would like to thank my supervisor, Peter Hempenstall, whose advice extricated me from tangles on several occasions and whose unfailing encouragement motivated me throughout this project. Thanks also to Te Maire Tau and Roger Fyfe for giving me their views on aspects of this topic. I would also like to thank my parents Mary and Barry for their support and keen interest in my work. Finally, this thesis could only be completed because my partner Kirsty encouraged me to delay returning to the ‘real world’ by yet another year. 3 Table of Contents 1. Charting the History of Ideas of a People..................................................................6 Introduction............................................................................................................6 Methodology..........................................................................................................8 Historiography .....................................................................................................10 Overview..............................................................................................................14 2. Peopling the Past......................................................................................................18 Introduction..........................................................................................................18 Imagining the Pacific ...........................................................................................18 Salvaging the Past................................................................................................21 The Lore of the Whare-wananga .........................................................................24 ‘Maori and Maruiwi’............................................................................................30 Smith and Best’s Legacy .....................................................................................35 3. A Divided Society....................................................................................................38 Introduction..........................................................................................................38 Rekohu .................................................................................................................38 The Moriori People of the Chatham Islands........................................................42 An Anthropologist on the Chathams....................................................................46 The Morioris of Chatham Islands........................................................................49 Dissent within the Society ...................................................................................55 Explaining the Past ..............................................................................................59 4. Textbook History ....................................................................................................62 Introduction..........................................................................................................62 A New Literature .................................................................................................62 The School Journal..............................................................................................64 Stories of New Zealand........................................................................................66 The Rise of the Moa Hunters ...............................................................................70 Contested History.................................................................................................75 A Matter of Interpretation....................................................................................78 5. Clearing the Confusion ............................................................................................80 Introduction..........................................................................................................80 The Last of the Moriori........................................................................................80 A Pilgrimage to the Chathams .............................................................................82 A Culture History of the Moriori.........................................................................84 A Cultural Rebirth................................................................................................86 Moriori Reviewed................................................................................................91 The Politics of the Time.......................................................................................96 6. “History of a different kind”..................................................................................101 Introduction........................................................................................................101 Representing Moriori.........................................................................................101 Shifting Focus ....................................................................................................106 A Revised Moriori .............................................................................................112 The Feathers of Peace .......................................................................................113 One Culture: Two Stories ..................................................................................118 At the Century’s End .........................................................................................119 7. Drawing the Threads Together ..............................................................................121 Conclusion .........................................................................................................124 4 Abstract The history of ideas about Moriori origins, settlement, and culture has yet to be charted across the entire twentieth century. The thesis’ primary goal is to begin the documentation of this in detail. It examines the two key strands of thought that have shaped this history of ideas: that Moriori were the remnants of a mainland pre-Maori people, and that they were the descendants of Maori voyagers. These sets of ideas existed simultaneously, which led to an intellectual history shaped by intersecting curves formed through long-ranging debate rather than a single linear progression of thought. Each strand of thought comprised several threads, or ideas about Moriori history that altered over time. The thesis traces this history of ideas about Moriori origins, settlement, and culture through texts, from Alexander Shand’s ethnological analysis The Moriori People of the Chatham Islands, published in 1911, to Barry Barclay’s 2000 documentary, The Feathers of Peace. It establishes the ideas advanced in key texts on Moriori history, explores the context in which these texts were produced, and suggests a link between shifts in debate and contemporary relations between Maori and Pakeha. 5 Abbreviations JPS – The Journal of the Polynesian Society NZJH – New Zealand Journal of History TNZI – Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 6 1. Charting the History of Ideas of a People Introduction In the course of the twentieth century, the history of the Moriori people became the subject of contradictory theories advanced largely by Pakeha academics and amateur scholars. Throughout the first half of the century, a number of New Zealand history texts and schoolbooks conveyed the belief that Chatham Island Moriori were the remnants of a pre-Maori mainland population, forced from the North Island by Maori settlers. By the late 1980s, this idea had been challenged by a succession of prominent academics. They argued that Moriori were instead the descendants of Maori voyagers who had discovered the Chathams – either accidentally or deliberately – at some point after Maori settlement of New Zealand. Both strands of thought about Moriori history existed in the public domain from the 1920s. Yet the notion of a mainland Moriori people remained sufficiently entrenched in late twentieth century popular beliefs about New Zealand’s history to grieve Moriori descendants. In May 1994, Moriori claimants submitted a copy of a School Journal article as evidence in a Waitangi Tribunal hearing on land claims in the Chatham Islands.1 They argued that the article, ‘How the Maoris Came to New Zealand’, was an example of “group defamation” of Moriori by the Crown through the education system.2 The story told of New Zealand’s discovery by Polynesian explorers, who found people of “an inferior culture” occupying the North Island. These were the Maruiwi or Mouriuri: alleged ancestors of Chatham Islands Moriori.3 One witness at the hearing drew a parallel between defamation of Moriori and anti-Semitism because both generated “savage myths” based on perceptions of ethnic traits.4 On this occasion at Turnbull House in Wellington, theories of Moriori origins and culture represented more than the faded print in an 80 year-old school text. The words had come to symbolise a grievance long-held by the
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