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Moriori
The Moriori are the first settlers of the Chatham Islands ( in Moriori language, Moriori; in Māori language, Māori). Moriori are Polynesians who came from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 AD, which was close to the time of the shift from the archaic to the classic period of Polynesian Māori culture on the mainland. Oral tradition records migration to the Chathams in the 16th century. The settlers' culture diverged from mainland Māori, and they developed a distinct Moriori language, mythology, artistic expression and way of life. Currently there are around 700 people who identify as Moriori, most of whom no longer live on the Chatham Islands. During the late 19th century some prominent anthropologists proposed that Moriori were Pre-Māori settlement of New Zealand theories, pre-Māori settlers of mainland New Zealand, and possibly Melanesians, Melanesian in origin; this hypothesis has been discredited by archaeologists since the early 20th century, but continue ...
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Moriori Language
Moriori, or ('the Moriori language'), is a Polynesian languages, Polynesian language most closely related to Māori language, New Zealand Māori. It is spoken by the Moriori, the indigenous people of New Zealand's Chatham Islands ( in Moriori), an archipelago located east of the South Island. Moriori went extinct as a first language at the turn of the 20th century, but language revitalisation, revitalisation attempts are ongoing. Moriori is a Polynesian language that diverged from Māori dialects after centuries of isolation, while still remaining mutually intelligible. The language has a Guttural, guttural diction and consistent Apocope, suppression of terminal vowels, meaning that unlike in Māori words may end in consonants. History The Chatham Islands' first European contact was on 29 November 1791 with the visit of HMS Chatham (1788), HMS ''Chatham'', captained by William Broughton. The crew landed in Waitangi harbour and claimed the island for Britain. The Moriori geno ...
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Chatham Islands
The Chatham Islands ( ; Moriori language, Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand, and consisting of about 10 islands within an approximate radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island, Pitt Island (''Rangiauria''). They include New Zealand's easternmost point, the Forty-Fours. Some of the islands, formerly cleared for farming, are now preserved as Protected areas of New Zealand, nature reserves to conservation in New Zealand, conserve some of the unique flora and fauna. The islands were uninhabited when the Moriori people arrived around 1500 CE and developed Nunuku-whenua, a peaceful way of life. In 1835, members of the Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori iwi from the North Island of New Zealand invaded the islands and Moriori genocide, nearly exterminated the Moriori, slavery, enslaving the survivors. In the period of European colonisation, the New ...
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Moriori Genocide
The Moriori genocide was the mass murder, enslavement, and cannibalism of the Moriori people, the indigenous ethnic group of the Chatham Islands, by members of the mainland Māori New Zealand iwi Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama from 1835 to 1863. The invaders murdered around 300 Moriori and enslaved the remaining population. This, together with diseases brought by Europeans, caused the population to drop from 1,700 in 1835 to 100 in 1870. The last full-blood Moriori, Tommy Solomon, died in 1933. There remain just under a thousand people of mixed descent who identify as Moriori. Background Moriori The Moriori are the indigenous population of the Chatham Islands (Moriori: ), specifically Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Moriori share the same Polynesian ancestry as Māori people. According to oral tradition the Moriori came to the Chatham Islands from Eastern Polynesia around 1500 AD, a couple of hundred years after Māori first arrived on the mainland, and that later ...
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Pre-Māori Settlement Of New Zealand Theories
Since the early 1900s it has been accepted by archaeologists and anthropologists that Polynesians (who became the Māori people, Māori) were the first ethnic group to settle in New Zealand (first proposed by Captain James Cook). Before that time and until the 1920s, however, a small group of prominent anthropologists proposed that the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands represented a pre-Māori group of people from Melanesia, who once lived across all of New Zealand and were replaced by the Māori. While this claim was soon disproven by academics, it was widely incorporated into school textbooks during the 20th century, most notably in the ''New Zealand School Journal, School Journal''. This theory has been followed by modern claims of a pre-Māori settlement of New Zealand by various ethnic groups. Today, such theories are considered to be Pseudohistory, pseudohistorical and Historical negationism, negationist by scholars and historians. In recent times, a greater variety of ...
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Nunuku-whenua
Nunuku-whenua was a sixteenth-century Moriori chief who is known for being a pacifist. The Moriori, a Polynesian people, migrated to Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) from mainland New Zealand around the year 1500. Their ancestors, the Wheteina and Rauru tribes of Hawaiki, intermarried with inhabitants already on the island known as the Hamata Tribe, who were descended from Rongomaiwhenua. Following bloody conflict between these three groups, Nunuku-whenua, a prominent Moriori chief, established "Nunuku's Law", which forbade the eating of human flesh and murder. He proclaimed: "Never again let there be war as there has been this day. Do not kill." There was an accompanying curse: "May your bowels rot the day you disobey". Moriori obeyed Nunuku's Law strictly, and maintained peace in the Chathams until 1835, when Ngāti Mutunga and the Ngāti Tama, two North Island iwi, arrived in the Rēkohu in search of resources and territories. They were initially welcomed by the Moriori before the ...
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Ngāti Tama
Ngāti Tama is a Māori people, Māori iwi, tribe of New Zealand. Their origins, according to oral tradition, date back to Tama Ariki, the chief navigator on the Tokomaru (canoe), Tokomaru waka (canoe), waka. Their historic region is in north Taranaki, around Poutama, with the Mōhakatino River marking their northern boundary with the Tainui and Ngāti Maniapoto. The close geographical proximity of Tainui's Ngāti Toa of Kawhia and the Ngāti Mutunga explains the long, continuous, and close relationship among these three tribes. History Migration from Taranaki to Wellington The Ngāti Tama migrated south in the 1820s in search of better opportunities (e.g. trade) and to ensure their safety, as there was a conflict with musket-carrying Tainui people. They were led by their paramount chief Te Pūoho-o-te-rangi, along with his brother Te Kaeaea and other chiefs. Other tribes in the migration were Ngāti Mutunga and Te Ātiawa, the three tribes sharing the same heritage, which goes b ...
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Ngāti Mutunga
Ngāti Mutunga is a Māori iwi (tribe) of New Zealand, whose original tribal lands were in north Taranaki. They migrated, first to Wellington (with Ngāti Toa and other Taranaki hapū), and then to the Chatham Islands (along with Ngāti Tama) in the 1830s. The ''rohe'' of the iwi include the Chatham Islands and part of north Taranaki. The principal marae are at Urenui in Taranaki, and on the Chatham Islands. The eponymous ancestor Mutunga, from whom Ngāti Mutunga claims its lineage, is a grandfather of Toa-rangatira, the eponymous ancestor of the Ngāti Toa tribe. “Mai Titoki ki Te Rau o Te Huia” saying, mentions their northern boundary with Ngāti Tama (Titoki), and southern boundary with Te Āti Awa (Te Rau o Te Huia). History Leaving Taranaki for Wellington Ngāti Mutunga's original territory, in north Taranaki, was invaded by Waikato tribes during the Musket Wars after a series of longstanding intertribal wars stretching back to at least 1807.Kelly, L. ''Tainui''. N ...
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Māori People
Māori () are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of Māori migration canoes, canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several centuries in isolation, these settlers developed Māori culture, a distinct culture, whose language, mythology, crafts, and performing arts evolved independently from those of other eastern Polynesian cultures. Some early Māori moved to the Chatham Islands, where their descendants became New Zealand's other indigenous Polynesian ethnic group, the Moriori. Early contact between Māori and Europeans, starting in the 18th century, ranged from beneficial trade to lethal violence; Māori actively adopted many technologies from the newcomers. With the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840, the two cultures coexisted for a generation. Rising ten ...
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Musket Wars
The Musket Wars were a series of as many as 3,000 battles and raids fought throughout New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) among Māori people, Māori between 1806 and 1845, after Māori first obtained muskets and then engaged in an intertribal arms race in order to gain territory or seek revenge for past defeats. The battles resulted in the deaths of between 20,000 and 40,000 people and the enslavement of tens of thousands of Māori and significantly altered the ''rohe'', or tribal territorial boundaries, before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The Musket Wars reached their peak in the 1830s, with smaller conflicts between iwi continuing until the mid-1840s; some historians argue the New Zealand Wars were (commencing with the Wairau Affray in 1843 and Flagstaff War in 1845) a continuation of the Musket Wars. The increased use of muskets in intertribal warfare led to changes in the design of pā fortifications, which later benefited Māori when engaged in bat ...
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Pitt Island
Pitt Island ( Moriori: , ) is the second largest island in New Zealand's Chatham Islands, with an area of . It lies about to the east of New Zealand's main islands, and about to the southeast of Chatham Island, from which it is separated by Pitt Strait. The island is hilly; its highest point (Waihere Head) rises to above sea level. , Pitt Island had a population of about 38 people. Pitt Island's Kahuitara Point is the first populated location on Earth to observe a sunrise in each new year, based on local time zone. History Pitt Island was originally inhabited by the Moriori, the indigenous peoples of the Chatham Islands, who called it ''Rangiaotea'' or ''Rangihaute''. Their archaeological remains are found almost everywhere on the island; large quantities of artefacts are constantly coming to light. No remains of momori rakau are visible on the island, but there are records of them once being present. The first Europeans to see and name Chatham Island were the crew ...
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Chatham Island
Chatham Island ( ) ( Moriori: , 'Misty Sun'; ) is the largest island of the Chatham Islands group, in the south Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of New Zealand's South Island. It is said to be "halfway between the equator and the pole, and right on the International Date Line", although that point is 173 miles WSW of the island's westernmost point. The island is called ''Rekohu'' ("misty skies") in Moriori, and ''Wharekauri'' in Māori.Government of New Zealand, Dept. of Conservation (1999) Chatham IslandsConservation Management Strategy''. Retrieved 13 July 2012. The island was named after the survey ship HMS ''Chatham'' which was the first European ship to locate the island in 1791. It covers an area of . Chatham Island lies south-east of Cape Turnagain, the nearest point of mainland New Zealand to the island. Geography The geography of the roughly T-shaped island is dominated by three features: two bays and a lagoon. More than half of the west coast of Chat ...
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South Island
The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south by the Foveaux Strait and Southern Ocean, and to the east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers , making it the List of islands by area, world's 12th-largest island, constituting 56% of New Zealand's land area. At low altitudes, it has an oceanic climate. The most populous cities are Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson and Invercargill. Prior to European settlement, Te Waipounamu was sparsely populated by three major iwi – Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, and the historical Waitaha (South Island iwi), Waitaha – with major settlements including in Kaiapoi Pā near modern-day Christchurch. During the Musket Wars expanding iwi colonised Te Tau Ihu Māori, Te Tau Ihu, ...
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