Tame Horomona Rehe, also known by the anglicised name Tommy Solomon, (7 May 1884 – 19 March 1933) is believed by most to have been the last

Moriori The Moriori are the native Polynesian people of the Chatham Islands (''Rēkohu'' in Moriori; ' in Māori), New Zealand. Moriori originated from Māori settlers from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 CE. This was near the time of th ...

unmixed ''Unmixed'' is the second album by house production duo Freemasons. It was released on 29 October 2007, with the lead single "Uninvited" being released one week earlier. The album is unique, as unlike most DJ/Producers, the tracks are all un ...

ancestry. Moriori are the indigenous people of the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

Early life

Solomon was born at Waikaripi in the

and raised on the Moriori Reserve near Manukau Point. His mother died in 1903 but because of his youthful irresponsibility the interest in her land was vested in his father during his lifetime.

Career as farmer

Solomon was married in 1903 to Ada Fowler of the Kāi Tahu ''

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, ...

'' and began learning the trade of

sheep farmer Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat (lamb and mutton), milk ( sheep's milk), and fiber ( wool). They also yield sheepsk ...

first on leased land and then on the family holding which gradually increased in size as the other Moriori people died off. When his father and his wife died in 1915 Solomon was running 7000 sheep and a herd of cattle on the family farm. He remarried in 1916 to Whakarawa, the niece of his first wife and subsequently had five children. During the 1920s Solomon became known as one of the most successful farmers in the Chatham Islands. He took an active part in the social and political life of the Chatham Islands and was widely respected for his generosity and his conciliatory nature; it was as the "last full-blooded Moriori" however that he was best known.

Family

As the Kāi Tahu are a South Island Māori tribe rather than Moriori, Solomon's children were considered of mixed descent. Modern scholars, however, reject the concept of a phylogenetically much distinct Moriori, and instead consider them a culturally distinct offshoot of an early (pre-Kāi Tahu) South Island Māori group, as evidenced by similarities between the

Moriori language Moriori is a Polynesian language most closely related to New Zealand Māori and was spoken by the Moriori, the indigenous people of New Zealand's Chatham Islands (''Rēkohu'' in Moriori), an archipelago located east of the South Island. Hist ...

and the k-dialect of southern Māori. There are still many people of partial Moriori descent both in the Chatham Islands and in mainland

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, and the Moriori are today generally considered a distinct ''cultural'' rather than

racial A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

entity.

Death and legacy

Solomon died of pneumonia and heart failure in 1933. Whati Tuuta, the son of his friend George Tuuta, built his coffin. In 1986, a statue was made to commemorate him; it can be found at Manukau close to his farm.

References

External links

Photograph of Solomon in Christchurch, 1925
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solomon, Tommy 1884 births 1933 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in New Zealand 20th-century New Zealand farmers Moriori people New Zealand Māori farmers People from the Chatham Islands