CHATHAMS MESSAGE: The Maori TV and NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation team at Chatham Islands airport. Dene Ainsworth is second from left.

PROSTABLOG NZ: NZ’s Maori television channel has broadcast a beautifully produced programme on men and prostate cancer on the Chatham Islands.

It features Dene Ainsworth (Te Ati Awa), who goes to the remote islands, 800km east of NZ, with Hawkes Bay urologist Dave Mason to talk to people about the dangers of undetected prostate cancer.

Their visit was funded by the NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation. See the programme here:

WHITIREIA journalism student CARL SUURMOND went to the Chatham Islands with the Prostate Cancer Foundation last weekend. Here’s his first report (see below for his SLIDE SHOW):

FLYING PROSTATE TEAM: from left, Carl Suurmond, Dene Ainsworth, Daniel Marshall, David Mason, Ash Zoias, Kelvin McDonald and Joe Tapara.

PROSTABLOG NZ: The men of the Chatham Islands are a tough  breed of fishermen and farmers whose work environments have shaped their hardwearing demeanour – but it’s the women of the island who are really tough.

Without the support and encouragement of wives, partners and mothers, many of the male inhabitants of the island may not have turned up at the presentations on prostate cancer held over the weekend.

Prostate Cancer Foundation board member Dene Ainsworth (left) and Joe Tapara.

That’s the view of Joe Tapara (Ngāti Ruanui),  cultural adviser for the Hao Te Ora o Wharekauri Trust and member of the Chatham Islands Māori Community Health.

“The wives and the partners were the reason why so many men turned up,” he said. “Without them nagging, I’m not sure how many would have bothered.”

Dene (right) in the jump seat behind the pilots.

The weekend presentations aimed to raise awareness of prostate cancer and promote early detection, with a focus on reducing fatalities amongst Māori men.

Maori are less likely to be diagnosed early and suffer a death rate after diagnosis that is twice that of non-Māori.

The trip was funded and organised by the NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation, in conjunction with Māori Community Health and Chatham Island Health Care.

David Mason (right) and Daniel Marshall get checked out on a boat at Port Hutt.

ISLAND FOOD: The team is spoiled at Kaingaroa.

The team included the expertise of urologist Dave Mason and trainee urologist registrar Daniel Marshall, both from Hastings.

Otaki’s Dene Ainsworth (Te Āti Awa Iwi), a board member on the foundation, and prostate cancer survivor, shared his own experience during four well-attended presentations to several communities around the island, which is 800km off the coast of Christchurch.

Dene speaks to one of the Chathams gatherings.

In total, 40 men out of 135 over the age of 40 – and a few women – turned out, and in small communities like Kaingaroa Harbour, Owenga and Port Hutt just about all the male population was there to have their questions and concerns answered.

The tour round the main of the Chathams group was organised by Mr Tapara, with plenty of help from other locals.

Mr Ainsworth said the weekend was a great success and the desired outcome had been achieved.

“It was a bloody awesome weekend.  I think we achieved more than we could have ever hoped for.  The reaction from the islanders was first class and they’re really keen to get us to go back and do this on a regular basis.”

Mr Mason and his colleague were there to address medical concerns and provide advice.

“I think the turnout has been amazing,” said Dave Mason.  “Each place that we’ve been to, the guys have come out and talked about things in different ways and brought up different concerns.

“There was a good bit of interest and a good spread of age groups.”

Mr Marshall said the men were not shy about asking questions.

“From talking to them afterwards it seems they’ve got a lot out of it.  They certainly haven’t been shy in asking questions and finding out what they want to know, which is what it’s all about.

“Seeing the island, seeing the style of life here, the way everyone gets on so well in the community here – it’s been brilliant.”

The waterfont at Waitangi, the main settlement.

The weekend came about through a serendipitous meeting between Dene Ainsworth and Joe Tapara at the first-ever Māori men’s health conference, Tane Ora, held in Blenheim earlier this year.

MAORI TV: Kelvin McMcdonald (left) & Ash Zoias.

Dene spoke about prostate cancer in a presentation at the conference and was heard by Joe Tapara.

The two talked about men’s health and prostate cancer and Joe told Dene that his presentation was needed on the Chatham Islands.

“I agreed that Chatham Islands men should have the same access and opportunity to these sorts of presentations as ‘mainland’ New Zealanders,” said Dene.

The trip, which was funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, was filmed by a crew from Maori Television, which will show it on its top current affairs programme, Native Affairs.

VIEW THE CHATHAM ISLANDS TRIP SLIDESHOW HERE

PROSTABLOG NZ: A Chatham Island gale whips up the tail feathers on a passing Weka – but men on the island were far from ruffled by the visit of the NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation team last weekend.

They turned out in big numbers to hear the prostate cancer message from the team, whose visit to the island is being reported by Whitireia journalism student Carl Suurmond (who took these pictures). SEE PICTURES HERE>

CHATHAMS WELCOME: Dene Ainsworth (white hair), urologist David Mason and his colleague arriving at Waitangi airport on Friday.

Carl tagged along with the foundation’s Dene Ainsworth, two Hawkes Bay urologists and a filmcrew from Maori TV, who all flew to the islands on Friday and were due back today.

The men spoke about the risks of prostate cancer to meetings organised by Chathams health worker Joe Tapara.

WILD COAST: Carl Suurmond at Petre Bay, which forms half the main Chatham Island's west coast.

Here’s Carl’s first impressions:

Things are going well here, although the weather has not been the best (set to change to less rain tomorrow (Sunday).

Had to take advantage of a one-hour break in the rain and get some footage of the scenic reserve that is behind the lodge.  Amazing place. The people are really great, as well.

I passed on a boozy night at the local with some friendly young fishermen we met at the Kaingaroa Harbour Social Club, where we had a barbeque.

The presentations went well today, with a large turn out at Kaingaroa.  Good questions were asked and it seemed beneficial to all those who attended.

Dene has been great, and I admire his passion and enjoy his informative presentations where I have learnt a fair bit myself.

Maori Television has been doing a fair bit of filming and I have observed a few techniques.  Kelvin and Ash are really nice guys.

The Urology team from the Hawkes Bay, Dave(Mason) and Daniel, are also really great guys, who answer questions well and are fun to be around.

I’m not sure if there will be any testing, though. The PSA machine is here, but they say it hasn’t been trialled yet.

One of the meeting venues.

]]> http://prostablog.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/prostate-shovel/ Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:43:13 +0000 Jim Tucker http://prostablog.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/prostate-shovel/

PROSTABLOG NZ: Men on the isolated Chathams – 10 small islands 800km east of NZ – are getting the message about prostate cancer this weekend.

Prostate Cancer Foundation board member Dene Ainsworth (Te Ati-awa), who has taken a prostate team there to talk to the men and test those who want it, says they are getting good attendances at their meetings.

In an email to his wife, Jan, back on the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington, he wrote today:

We drove to Kaingaroa, a 1hr 45min drive, and we spoke to 13 men there.

Again, a good turnout, as there is only 30 people, total, that live there.

It was a lively meeting, with predominantly fishermen who called a spade a f***n shovel, so there was some lively debate, aided by one of the guys celebrating his birthday and being reasonably well-lubricated when he arrived.

The team – there for just the weekend and heading home tomorrow – includes Napier urologist David Mason and a colleague, Maori TV, and a Whitireia Journalism School student, Carl Suurmond.

PROSTABLOG NZ:  A chance meeting between two Maori men may affect the future well-being of 135 males living on the Chatham Islands.

DENE AINSWORTH DomPost pic

The meeting has led to a NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation-funded initiative, which will soon see the island’s over-40 male population offered health checks and prostate cancer screening tests.

More than half the island males have Maori and Moriori ancestry, and while they have no proven genetic pre-disposition, statistics show they are less likely to be diagnosed early, and suffer a death rate after diagnosis that is twice that for non-Maori.

Earlier this year, the Foundation helped Kapiti Coast man Dene Ainsworth get to Blenheim to attend Tane Ora, the first-ever Maori men’s health conference, so he could make a presentation.

One person who heard him was Joe Tapara, a representative of the Chatham Islands Māori Community Health.

Later, the pair talked about men’s health in general, and prostate cancer in particular, and Joe reckoned a talk along the lines of Dene’s presentation was needed on the Chathams.

“I agreed that Chatham Islands men should have same access and opportunity to these sorts of presentations as ‘mainland’ New Zealanders,” says Dene (Te Ati Awa), who is a prostate cancer survivor and now a member of the PCF Board.

He put the idea of a Chathams visit to the PCF in August and it was approved for the last weekend in September.

Dene will be accompanied by Napier urologist Dave Mason, who is donating his time and insists on paying his own travel costs, and who will offer free health checks to those men who want them.

The two will work with island health workers, and will be guided by their advice about the island’s needs.

According to the last census (2006), the 10-island Chatham Islands group (800 kilometres east of New Zealand) has a population of 609, whose ethnic origins are European (66%), Maori (57%) and Moriori (the first settlers).

Some 22% of the population (135) are men 40-plus, the milestone age when prostate cancer risks begin to rise.

The main island, Chatham, has a hospital and resident doctor, but no ready access to a specialist like Dave.

The islands are connected to NZ by regular air service, but fares cost many hundreds of dollars.

Julian Wilcox

Along to cover the trip will be Maori Television presenter Julian Wilcox, who will report it for the channel’s flagship current affairs programme, Native Affairs.

Also covering the three days – checkups by Dave and four presentations by Dene – will be Whitireia Journalism School student Carl Suurmond (Tainui), who will shoot video and still photos, and write articles.

Dene is Business Manager for a research and policy company, Mauriora-ki-te-Ao/Living Universe Ltd, which offers products and services that concern the development and communication of ideas, particularly as they relate to the creative potential of Māori knowledge, people and resources.

Owae Marae

Dene: “Nō Waitara ahau, engari inaianei e noho ana ahau ki Ōtaki. Ānei toku pepeha: Ko tokomaru te waka, ko Taranaki te Maunga, ko Waitara te Awa, ko Te Āti Awa te iwi, ko Ngāti Rahiri te hapu, ko Owae te marae.

“I come from Waitara and am currently living in Otaki. I whakapapa to Te Āti Awa iwi and the hapu of Ngāti Rahiri and my turangawaewae (home place to stand) is Owae marae in Waitara.

Hokotehi Moriori Trust is the mandated legal body entitled and empowered by its members to represent the Moriori people in everything from Treaty claims to commercial activities. Hokotehi owns Chatham Lodge and Kopinga Marae and operates a number of commercial and cultural ventures around these facilities. Hokotehi also is partially responsible for administering finances designed and given for language and cultural rejuvenation.

Quick history: Moriori have lived her on Rekohu for many hundreds of years, possibly since before the ancestors of today’s Maori landed in New Zealand and definitely since then. Either way Moriori acknowledges a shared background to Maori, but they have developed in the sanctuary and isolation of these islands, much in the same way that Maori have developed their own culture here in New Zealand.

In 1791 the peaceful existence was shattered by the discovery of these islands and this people by Europeans.

44 years later in 1835, two Moair tribes invaded the islands on chartered European sailing ships and under the watchful eyes of the resident pakeha, they “walked the land” laying claim to everything and everyone, killing those that argued and many who didnt. There were 1561 Moriori alive then, after the killing was over there were only a couple of hundred left and in less than one hundred years, there were none. The invading Maori knew that Moriori were pacifists and wouldnt fight back,so their task was easy. It didnt stop them from roasting and eating many of their victims and enslaving, raping, murdering or destroying the remainder. This all happened despite repeated protests and requeste to the Governor of NZ and pakeha residents on the island.

Slavery was outlawed in New Zealand with the Treaty of Waitangi and by the annexing of the Chatham Islands by the Government in 1842. They simply ignored the slavery of Moriori until 1863, by which stage there were only 100 Moriori left.

In 1933 the last known full-blooded Moriori died. But the race has not died. Descendantsof that last Moriori and others have revived the culture and are coming out from under the covers of oppression and myth.

Hokotehi Moriori Trust is evidence of the changing views of society. A people once denigrated and vilified, now accepted and subtly acknowedged. (Shh, cant upset Maori by being to publicly sympathetic)

Moriori are still being marginalised even today and even by Government departments. The Department of Conservation, for example has an opportunity on behalf of the Crown to dispense some justice for Moriori by allowing them to have at least commercial access and priority over lands and islands that they once owned, (and would own today if the justice system really was about justice). The islands of Rekohu were stolen or subjugated and Moriori were forceably removed and disenfranchised.

Forget the argument that it all happened a long time ago so why should we do anything about it now or why should WE have to worry about it. Because we are still doing it to them. Thats why. Get a grip and look around. This country has poured millions into treaty claims and bent over backwards to accommodate the tangata whenua because deep down we all know that it is right. Well, the same reasons for that being right only scratches the surface for what would be right for Moriori .

Denying Moriori access to the islands or access to a management partnership over access willcause a fresh treaty claim. Not including any references to Moriori in Educational publications is an insult, of gigantic proportions, and certainly would also be cause for fresh grievance from Moriori. The outfits that pubish offical school atlases cant even put the Bloody Chathams in them. The Government, through the Ministry of Education, publishes books curriculum documents in English, Maori, Spanish German, Cantonese, French and and God knows what else, but they cant even mention the word Moriori in any offical school documents to date.

That smacks (like a wet towel) of racism. Pandering to those Maori that would be offended if Moriori were given too much recognition perhaps?

I reckon that the Department should stop playing games and do the right thing by Moriori. After all,  Moriori looked after all of those bird and plant species well enough before you guys came along.

A win win answer might be a deal such as in other delicate areas around NZ where Maori act in partnership with DOC and run restricted exclusie commercial ventures on DOC estate.

There is precedent and there is desire form Moriori but for some reason DOC is making it difficult for partnership to occur, preferring instead to act like the colonial ruler that sat by and watched Moriori get eaten  174 years ago. Perhaps nothing does change in the fourth estate.

Marginalise them, frustrate them, eliminate them!

Getting annoyed

Me rongo

Rekohu

This is the furthermost corner of Rongotai turning green (just like the rest of the electorate):

Funnily enough there were only a few candidate forums in Rongotai but the two that I went along to people at both quizzed the candidates extensively about what they would do for the people of the Chatham Islands.  And the candidates from Labour, National and the Greens were all very well informed on the issues facing people on the Chathams. (Notably affordable energy generation, infrastructure development and control of their fisheries).

It must be easy to feel a bit politically forgotten out there on the Chathams but it did seem that the three Rongotai candidates who continue on as MPs this term had all given significant thought to what they would do to work for the people of the Chathams.  It’s interesting that, in one sense, the Chathams now have three local MPs – maybe they need to develop this caucus?

But providing wider education choices is not the answer. It is merely a possible consequence of getting it right.

What we need to create on the Chatham Islands, is the perception that it is an awesome place to live, work, raise kids and retire too. That it is the next land of milk and honey. Which it actually is… well sort of.

We need to make it a desirable destination to visit and work, because they both go hand in hand. More visitors, more workers, more workers: more capacity for visitors, or something like that.

How can we turn this around then?

By creating, overnight, such a demand for workers, that wages exceed anything elsewhere in NZ and providing employment and housing for them.

No, I havent lost the plot.

It really is simple.

Every scrap of quota that is caught in the EEZ economic exclusion zone should be processed on the Chatham Islands.!

It is irrelevent whether it is caught by NZ vessels or JVs, it must be processed here on Rekohu.

This would solve, pretty damned quickly, the employment problems, the energy problems and the shipping problems.

Processors would need to upgrade facilities and import staff and provide housing (up to a standard).

Factories would need to be extended. Freezer capacity would need to be increased. Shipping of frozen product would need to be improved and increased significantly.

Put it this way. Would the big fishing companies that currently plunder the Chathams area, turn their backs on the millions of dollars that they are making in profits at the moment? No

They would work smarter.

They would get rid of their 180 metre factory vessels that stay at sea for 6weeks at a time and run smaller trawlers, perhaps out of here, which catch and land every week or so, based on Rekohu. They would supply land based fuel. They would process here and they would ship from here. It would probably work out more cost effective for them anyway.

All it takes is for a concerted approach, by all groups, the Trust, the Iwi groups, Council, MAF, Farmers etc, and the highly influential (in some people’s view) Taylor Baines Review team to recommend it to the Government and it could happen. It would also be beneficial to the Islands to have a Minister made specifically responsible for the Chatham Islands, such as what occurs with Norfolk Island and the Aussie government.

Thats my answer anyway. I havent done the figures but I did sit down and try and work out exactly how much value in $terms there was in all of the quota for this area, and all I got was a headache. So I gave up.

Just like everyone else is giving up.

The $20 million patch up isnt necessarily the answer either.

I agree that the redevelopment of wharfing facilities at Port Hutt may be a good idea, but if you really think that the only reason that the current shipping service costs so much is due to weather delays, then you really dont have a very good grasp on the situation at all. In fact there is really only one thing that you do have a grasp on, and its not shipping.

I am also not convinced that relying on windpower is the answer either….. Yes we all know that it can blow down here…. but it doesnt do it all of the time……… and generating the power from wind is easy…….. its storing the excess for later use that is the expensive part of the game….. Any way, more from me later.

I would love to hear your views.

Tune in for the next posting, we will discuss the impact of the global credit crunch,  local Iwi politics, local business movements and ways in which the Govt could help improve our lot.

If you have a view on any of these issues, or any issues at all, send us an email. We’d love to hear from you?

Rekohu

The population of Rekohu is shrinking dramatically and at the current rate, will reach a crisis point, sooner, rather than later, unless something can be done to arrest the trend.

People have always come and gone from these islands. Some to return at a later date. Some never.

But all are always welcome and they are always whanau. If you have been there once, or if your family was once there, still there, thinking of going there, then you are whanau too.

But now, today, something more insidious is afoot. The crippling cost of living on Rekohu is driving people away. Fewer people are returning and more are going.

For my 28 years of involvement with Rekohu, the population havs always been a steady 750 folks and a good 40-50 on Rangiauria (Pitt Island). At the last census, the population was recorded as a total (Pitt and Rekohu) of 606 hardy souls, with a mixture of ethnicities,  backgrounds and incomes.

This goes against the national and global trends for population increase.

They are actually leaving and no-one is filling the gaps.

For the first time in a long long time (probably for ever) there are more houses for sale than there are buyers.

There isnt a single issue that is causing this problem. There are many and it seems like in the past 2-3 years, that they have all come to a head. This will be a conversation piece for a fair while I suspect. I look forward to getting a few comments and views on this.

One of the biggest issues though has to be the cost of living.

Electricity prices are about 5 times that of living in the mainland.

Every single item of foodstuffs that you import has a freight component. Everything that you buy here has that freight cost built in, with mark-ups from 0% to 200% on some in-store items.

Fuel prices seem to rise disproportionately to that of our mainland suppliers, perhaps reflecting the inadvisability of permitting monopolistic situations, in both the shipping, the agents and the retail sectors.

NO monopoly is good for anything.

The inextricable, complex and undoubtedly financially rewarding relationship between the shipping agent, the ships owners and the retail outlets is definitely a recipe for community disaster.

Little doubt that the locals sense a rat in the mix. Especially when one considers that the price of fuel at the pumps is a lot higher than the commercaial “bulk rates” that suppliers can provide.

No wonder that the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust seems hell-bent on becoming involved in providing fuel, or at least an alternative outlet for us peasants. Lets hope that their commercial imperative remains firmly tainted by the social obligations and conscience that they are mandated to have, because they dont appear to have done diddly squat for the islanders over the past few years…? Correct me if I am wrong. I would relish the opportunity for the discussion….?

Conversely, though, and just before some of you stab frantically at the keyboard in response, risking cuticle damage and apoplexy, I don’t think that the anonymous mailout late last year was an answer either. It read like a Winston Peters election pledge: Long winded, conveniently omitting all of the pertinent information, unprovoked personal attacks, absolutely off the mark and pointless, and all delivered from the anonymous safety of an old womans knickers. What a rabid crock of ……….

Anyway,….. I digress……

Getting back to the conversation at hand: Population demise.

Another contributing factor is the perception that it isnt a nice place to live in, and certainly not that best place to raise your children. Bollocks. Its great. But if it doesnt suit you… then… you’re right. Leave.

If, however it does suit you, stay. Simple. Next issue please.

No seriously, it isnt for everyone. Which is great, becasue we dont want everyone living here, because than it wouldnt be our Chatham Islands would it.

A lot of modern parents are choosing to move out to the mainland while their children attend secondary school and you have to admit, thats a positive thing to do, both for the parents and the kids involved. There is nothing more important than family.

Is there another option. Could the kids recieve secondary schooling on Rekohu? No. A big fat N.O. Well, actually, they can. The correspondence school provide services here and even pay for a registered teacher to take a class several hours per week, based at Te One School.

For some Parents, this is ok, whilst other would prefer that their children recieved socialisation as well as education by attending a mainland high school. Fair enough we say.

Could we start a high school on the Chathams then?

Well actually you could, and it could be quite a well resourced little school. You would have to mnake iut an area school, with new entrants through to Form 7, much the same as Cheviot area school, in North Canterbury, Hurunui, Karamea, Taipa area school, Murchison, in fact, there are heaps of them and they all cope. Some have as few as 70 students. We could have over 100 if everybody was into it.

The difficulty would be is that the kids are still only mixing with the same kids, but that is the same difficulty as other area schools face.

Financially, a local school would be a winner as well, and should be a very well resopurced unit, providing education for all ages as well as community education.

Anyway that the end of todays wee speech. I’ll be back. Dont forget to throw in your comments though?

Me rongo (in peace)

Tena Ko

In response to a question from “Scott” I have to add these comments about the book ‘Manu Moriori’.

Whilst it is an exceptionally beautiful book, and full of wonderful photographs of Hokairo or more appropriately: rakau momori,  it seems to me to be yet another example of someone making use of the (cultural) intellectual property rights of an indigenous people, much the same as has happened to Moriori for the past ??? years. I also note that in the acknowledgement section towards the back of the book, no acknowledgment was given to the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, who are the offically recognised, mandated representitivres of Te Imi Moriori. I further add, that reading this book, was the first time that I have ever heard the expression “Manu Moriori” and wonder why Mr Richards would call his new book something that defies the current and historical understanding of the names of the carvings. They are rakau momori, or momori rakau, not manu moriori. That could also be interpreted as saying that historical Moriori saw themselves as ”Bird People”. I have found no reliable source to confirm that supposition.

I also note, that in Micheal King’s book: Moriori: A People Re-discovered, he states that, ” No one knows the exact nature and function of the Moriori dendroglyphs on the Kopi. The groves may have served a ritual purpose similar to that of marae….”

Get it?

No one does know!

I also am surprised by the casualness with which someone with as much (research/scientific/historical)experience as Mr Richards obviously possesses, can make the transition from supposition to fact: (I refer to his presentation that Moriori and the inhabitants of Rapanui (Easter Island) shared similar beliefs, habits and language) I quote from page 48; “The Moriori drew their motifs a bit differently, but their carvings represent exactly the same concept”.

or from page 50; “The parallels are too numerous, and too close, to be dismissed as chance”.

or from page 51: “The functions of all three seem remarkably similar”.

Now, dont get me wrong. I am not saying that there is no connection between the inhabitants of Rapanui and those early inhabitants of Rekohu, and I do agree that there are similarities in the language etc etc, but amongst the many things that spring to mind, the first is this:

A people that possessed the technology to create those giant carvings on Rapanui, and obviously travelled between islands etc, why didnt they continue carving them on Rekohu, as there is certainly plenty of good canvases there? And.. the Moriori certainly had the ability to carve stone, didnt they?

Anyway, that just me nitpicking again..

Scott: To answer your question. I liked the look of the book. I liked the photographs. I did not like the comparisons which eventually gave the impression that it was a done deal; that Moriori and Rapanui-ites shared close relations (perhaps even originating from there less than 600 years ago). I prefer to believe the M. KIng’s version that ” evidence of the final migration was from New Zealand is explicit”.

I also believe that the book should have been at least authorised by Hokotehi Moriori Trust as it would have been nice to have had a foreword in there from them, to lend it cultural credibility. Unless Mr Richards has Moriori hokopapa (lineage) this is just another example of what Micheal King calls, “manipulative, presumptuous and of little value”.

All of the resources cited were recorded after Moriori had been in “contact” (thats very “pc” eh?) with New Zealand Maori for over thirty years, diluting the truth, and infecting the Moriori mythology with their versions. Thats not very scientific is it?

Baucke, for example, who lived on Rekohu, and spoke fluent re, reo and english, initially wrote with respect of Moriori, recording customs and traditions, but later writings, 1922+ were vitriolic and full of nothing but distaste for the “inferior beings” that he saw Moriori as. This may or may not be related to his marital status at that time.

Hunt, in his Diary was recorded as being one of the last to see a Moriori do a tree carving, after the murder of his wife and child by Maori. Hunt didnt arriver on Rekohu (or Rangiauria) until 1841(ish). 6 years after the arrival of Maori.

Jefferson did her book in the 1950’s.  

I conclude by re-iterating that these taongas are the intellectual property of the Moriori People. They are not there for the intellectual self-gratification of others. The majority of those that remain, that havent been destroyed by agricultural practices, or firewood gathering, are located in one, of only two National Historic Reserves that New Zealand has. They are important culturally, spiritually, and historically for Moriori. They are also important for the cultural and historical conscience of New Zealand. It is not up to anyone else, apart from Moriori, to tell us what they represent, or to make allusions as to what they might mean, or whom they are related to.

Manu means bird!  There are carvings that depict nearly every living animal, insect or fish on Rekohu.

Hey, but these are my views only.

You asked the question.

I hope you got the answer that you wanted.

Me rongo

Interestingly enough over the past nearly a year or so, many people have said to me, “whats the point in blaming anyone for what happened a 170 years ago?” And to a certain point I would have to agree. There is absolutely no point in blaming anyone for something that happened 170 years ago. Absolutely! Besides, I’m picking that the majority of those involved have probably met their makers by now anyway. Correct me if I’m wrong.

My usual response to the question has undergone a bit of a change after a wee bit of a rain check. I had to ask myself, why do people always ask me that question. The answer was simple. Obviously I wasnt communicating well enough for people to understand my take on the debate regarding Moriori, Rekohu, Treaty issues, Ngati Mutunga, Wharekauri, History, alienation, assimmilation, dispossession, murder, theft, and general skullduggery; not to mention the slavery, poverty, cultural and physical genocide and a whole range of other things, far too unsavoury to mention.

As far as I know, and between you and me, I’ve read quite a few bits and pieces over the past year ( and a few more years to boot) and I can quite happily say that nowhere have I read about Moriori complaining about what Te Ati Awa did to them.

What Moriori do have an issue with is not what Maori did to them in 1835 but what successive Governments and NZ society did to them since then.

I think that deep down (actually probably not that far) Moriori know and many will admit that what Maori did in 1835 was only what their (Maori) custom dictated them to do. Unfortunately for Moriori, those customs didnt quite match up to Moriori customs or beliefs.

At the end of the day, the Maori invasion of Rekohu was a deliberate planned move on the part of Te Ati Awa, and in retrospect probably done with the full knowledge of the provisional governing bodies at the time. But that was fine. That was what they did. They had just had their own butts kicked out of Taranaki, so why not head off to where the kai was plentiful and the locals didnt or wouldnt fight. It would have seemed like a bit of a holiday after the previous few years for them. In several accounts that I have read, it was a choice between conquering Rekohu or heading up to Samoa and taking the Samoans on. Its probably just as well for Te Ati Awa, that the chartered ship headed Southeast out of Port Nicholson and not to the North, because it may have been a different outcome for them. Sadly for Moriori they did.

The manner of what they did, should also not invite blame. Once again it was business as usual. These people were warrior people, not travelling vacuum cleaner salesmen. They went to Rekohu and kicked butt, because that was what they did.

Where society has (repeatedly) let Moriori down, was that there were Europeans living right there on Rekohu, amongst Moriori in some cases and all stood by and let the initial slaughter and invasion happen.

Okay, so that too might be understandable. 900 Maori warriors in full battle mode, claiming all in their path, in fact racing to beat the other tribe to the spoils. 1561 unarmed and non-combatant Moriori in some cases gracefully receiving their fate, in others, being hunted down and murdered, the remainder shepherded up like animals. I guess you could understand that initial reluctance on the part of the Europeans to interfere with what was obviously (to them) an inter-tribal dispute?

Now we get to the gnarlier parts.

But with all of the above aside… with no particluar blame attached, …. maybe an acknowledgement that.. “ok, now that wasnt very nice behaviour, but I guess that youve been living like that for a few hundred years or more, and fighting is what you do, and you guys, well you should have put up a bit more of a struggle, cos ya know you could have had em” 

With all that aside, how did the rest of the “civilised” (and I use that sparingly) country of New Zealand manage to sit aside and then allow the hundred and fifty plus years of racism and intolerance, slavery, assimmilation and genocide to occur. Some might say, “well we didnt know”.

Bollocks.

Moriori were not and are not the inferior intellect that many early ethnologists explained them as, thereby justifying the fact that white New Zealand condoned Maori  keeping them as slaves and concubines and holding their lives in their hands and often taking their lives. This was after slavery was abolished in New Zealand. And by the way for those of you who dont know where Rekohu is: it is actually a part of New Zealand and lies to the South east of Christchurch. It’s actually been a part of NZ since 1842. Slavery wasnt eliminated there until 1863, even though the Treaty, that wonderful “founding” document of this great racially inclusive nation of ours, sort of spells out that the  natives shouldnt be slaves.

Oh yes, but Moriori are not covered by the treaty are they? They didnt sign it, they couldnt have, they were busy running around after their Maori masters, so how could they have signed the Treaty?

They didnt, but it was well done of you to ask the question. Neither did a whole heap of mainland Maori tribes sign the Treaty.

The answer is in the wording of the Treaty. Have a look and see how many times you can find reference to the Treaty being just about Maori. From memory, I think you will find that the treaty is a deal between the crown and the natives and chiefs of New Zealand, and as Rekohu was included in NZ in 1842, and Moriori were and still are the “natives” (tchakat henu actually)of those sunny isles, ergo they must be covered by the good old Treaty of Waitangi, which ironically enough is the comon use name of the main township on Rekohu, although it is a Maori name and the original Moriori name is Waiteke, but placenames are another story.

So here is a quite good sized chunk of New Zealand citizens, in abject slavery, many murdered, many eaten, all forbidden to congregate, marry each other, have children, own land, total slavery, and everybody sat back and watched.

The Government even actively participated in the genocide some 35 years later by allowing a land court sitting to strip away the land through the courts thereby reinforcing and legitimising everything that had happened.

None of these actions were in the cultural vocabulary of Moriori. Moriori had a peaceful philosophy and had done for hundreds of years. Moriori had abolished warfare, even though they came from a volatile homeland (reportedly about the same time as Maori came to New Zealand) and lived in harmony with the environment and each other. So when the Maori arrived and the Moriori helped them recover from their sea voyage and the Maori subsequently turned on them, younger Moriori wanted to fight, but their own beliefs, developed over hundreds of years forbade them from retaliating, so they didnt.

I wonder if Mahatma Ghandi or Mandela knew about Nunuku’s law?

So whilst murder and warfare were in the cultural vocabulary of both the Maori and the colonial powers, they were unknown to Moriori.

Repeated written pleadings to the Governor fell on deaf ears. Scientific studies, both ethnographical and botannical mention Moriori and their plight, all published, but yet no-one in authority did anything to help. Slaves were removed from Rekohu and transported to the bleak and inhospitable  Auckland Islands as part of a doomed experiment in Maori expansionism, watched over by colonial expansionism. Many of these Moriori were never returned to Rekohu, with most ending up on Rakiura (Stewart Island).

There is simply no excuse for historically saying “we didnt know”.

Nowhere in todays schools are we taught anything about this fascinating part of New Zealands early history, although previous mention of Moriori by offical publications also helped perpetuate the myth that Moriori were an inferior and “indolent” race if they actually ever existed. Speaking of myths, that has been one of the most effective methods employed to destabilise the history and culture of Moriori and foil any attempts by the Moriori people to reassert themselves as a people.

Myth: Moriori never existed.

Answer: wow. One wonders then, who was living on Rekohu in 1791 when the Brig Chatham arrived, because they sure werent “Maoris” (in the strictest sense of the word)and they had a different dialect, appearance, culture, traditions, art, and no contact with mainland NZ and they had been there for many hundrds of years.

Myth: Moriori were invented by the colonial government to legitimise colonisation of NZ

Answer: Wow. So because Maori conquered Moriori, that made it alright for the pakeha to conquer Maori. Bollocks, that may be a percieved position to take in a  debate but it really is bollocks.

Myth: There are no Moriori

Answer: Wow. Wrong again! The last full-blooded Moriori was recorded as dying in 1933. Now some will argue even that point, but whatever the accuracy of that statement, and I have seen no evience to contradict that by the way, that gentleman had descendants. I have seen the hokopapa charts (genealogy to you white folks, or whakapapa to Maori) and guess what? There are heaps of Moriori around New Zealand and Australia (and a few further afeild than that too). The Moriori Imi (thats Iwi to Maori and I guess ‘tribe’ to you Pakeha) has quite a large congregation, which is growing  as more  and more people waken to their heritage and trace their legitimate hokopapa.

There are possibly even more to come, as Moriori were known to have travelled (stowed) away on whaling and sealing ships to all corners of the globe, many never to return.

Myth: Moriori were an inferior race of low intellect.

Answer: Wow. Bollocks. I have read this in many articles from supposedly esteemed scientific authors, and it is beyond me how such a statment can be written about a people. I can understand how you can say that about an individual, but a whole race of people? Wow! Some quantify the statement with the excuse that they must be of inferior intellect to have been conquered by a lesser number of Maori, and others base their assessment on the condition that they first saw Moriori in (post 1835). If you had just witnessed the murder and cannabilisation of family members, been imprisoned, beaten, deprived of ALL of your basic human rights, you probably wouldnt be feeling too flash either. Certainly not up to a game of chess with an arrogant ethnologist trying to establish your mental accuity.

Myth: Moriori are just another Maori tribe trying to get in on the “Treaty” windfall

Answer: Wow. Actually, if you take the time to read the Waitangi Tribunal’s report on Rekohu (Moriori and Ngati Mutunga) you might (as I was) be impressed by the way in which the above myths were dealt with. Where I (personally) think that they got it a wee bit wrong, was over this particular myth, but that might have been a legal way to permit them to handle Moriori claims. I guess if they had said that Moriori were not Maori (note the use of the capital as opposed to maori) then some bright spark would have challenged them through the courts. Anyway getting back to the myth at hand:

Acccording to the Waitangi Tribunal and others throughout the years, Moriori originated from the same place as Maori (Hawaiiki, which may be Tonga, Fiji,Hawaii,Rarotonga Easter Island, actually anywhere in polynesia) (but generations earlier) and left the mainland (NZ) about the same time as Maori arrived there.

Maori from Hawaiiki (and lets just pretend for the sake of argument that Hawaiiki is really Tonga) came to NZ and settled here and through that settlement and their occupation in relative isolation from their homeland they became Maori (rather than just Tongans living abroad).

At the time that they arrived, the Moriori  headed out for Rekohu, settling there in complete isolation, developing their own culture and beliefs. Yet the Waitangi tribunal, identified that Maori (mainland) are not simply “Tongans” (for example) but have developed ther own identity and have become Maori, a seperate race. Yet the Moriori who have lived in isolation for the same amount of time are identified by the Waitangi Tribunal as Maori, or at least a tribe of Maori.

Surely they deserve the same distinction of a seperate race, otherwise Maori cant be Maori either? Its all very confusing really.

The Waitangi Tribunal got it right though when they said that Moriori really were the indigenous people or Tchakat Henu of Rekohu. They also said that through occupation of 170 odd years, that Ngati Mutunga were also Tangata Whenua.

Today, Moriori are still being marginalised and discriminated against and denied their status as a unique people and original inhabitants of Rekohu. The majority of place names in common use around the island are either Pakeha or Maori, Moriori do not have the opportunities that Maori have with regard to identity in offical documents, instead being relegated to filling out the “other” category, and Moriori re (reo) which was recorded in the mid 1800’s is not an official language of New Zealand, yet it surely predates Maori Reo, even if only a dialect and not a seperate language.

Moriori recieve no recognition in offical publications in our schools, and our teachers are under no obligation to mention even the existence of Moriori in the classrooms of this great inclusive nation of ours. Some school atlases do not even have Rekohu in them.

This is the United Nations Decade of Indigenous people, with the purpose of drawing Native people into decision making, participation and opportunities for acceptance alongside mainstream culture. A seperate and unique people living among the rest.

Moriori are emerging as a people from under the clouds of obscurity and suffering that were heaped upon them, but mainly under their own power and through a peaceful insistence that they be recognised as a people and through playing the game that a colonised society forces them to learn. Justice through the Courts and appeals to Governments have historically fallen on deaf ears. Lately (decades)though with a more sympathetic approach to Maori from Government, Moriori have repeatedly taken a legal position and used the Treaty to its full effect to at least claw back some of which they were deprived of. They will never be given back anywhere near enough of the 97% of the Islands which were stolen  through the land court sittings back in the 1870’s, but with appropriate redress they will make a point and hopefully our own Government of today and tomorrow will listen and acknowledge Moriori as a seperate people, who just happen to be Tchakat Henu of Rekohu. Perhaps even Government Departments might even include reference to Moriori in their publications, as they do to Maori. One day we may even see mention of Moriori in the forewords of all education pubications as we do with Maori.

Who knows; maybe  a Moriori member of Parliament, or how about a guaranteed Moriori Seat in the House of Representatives. Why not? Maori get a few.

This debate is not about what Maori get, versus what Moriori dont though. Its about justice and redress and fixing the wrongs and ultimately about including Moriori in our society and stop marginalising them. As the late David Lange said: “Moriori are a people. They exist. They will not go away”. Recognise it. Embrace the peaceful philosophies of one of our indigenous peoples.

The ironic, impressive and (for me) overwhelming thing about the whole issue is the way in which Moriori have dealt with the continued oppression: no jumping up and down, no protests, no hikoi’s no threats, no violence or terrorism:

just …..

Peace, pride, determination and as I have come to realise of late; mana! 

Me rongo (In peace)

Behold my eleventh hour contribution to WordPress 2.5! With which I bend time using sheer willpower and win the love of the people.

To the people of the mountainous nation of Nepal, I salute you! I will not let your blogging be incorrectly time-stamped by fifteen minutes. As much as the hounds of assimilation (in the form of half-hour incremented time-zones) may bark at your personal publishing door!

To the great blogging warriors of Kiribati, whose expansive nation sweeps across the ocean. Your wish to keep your fellow citizens crossing the same day off your calendars at the same time by breaking the international date line standard will be honoured in WordPress 2.5!

To the Tongans your theoretically impossible +13:00 timezone is safe and sound.

To the coastal dwellers or south-east Western Australia, what on earth were you thinking?

And finally, to the residents of the Chatham Islands, both of your unusual timezone offsets will be supported! Yes, that’s one timezone for every 300 people on your fair isles.

To one and all in these proud nations, I remain your humble non-standard timezone champion.

Congratulations to Joan Prendeville, newly appointed manager of Chatham Lodge.

Chatham Lodge was purchased in 2007 by Hokotehi Moriori Trust from John and Denise Sutherland. John and Denise created Chatham Lodge during the 1980’s and slowly and carefully built the business up, maintaining a high standard of quality and service.

Joan has been at the helm for nearly a year and has already began to build up quite a regular clientelle of her own, offering great dining, great company and a great location.

Chatham Lodge has a range of accommodation packages available including adventure packages and day trips to nearby Pitt Island.

Check out the Chatham Lodge website for your next weekend away, or week fishing, diving, tramping, sight seeing or just relaxing and unwinding in the peaceful surroundings at Chatham Lodge, New Zealands best kept secret.  There are also a number of photo galleries where you can preview some of the amazing scenery and activities available for you on Rekohu while you stay at Chatham Lodge.

Come and experience Rekohu with the Rekohu Experience

The holidays are a busy time, far too busy for over-analysis. Sure, I could have been writing screeds about American consumerism and the collective material guilt that forces us all to go into massive amounts of debt in the month of December, but uh… I think that was really enough. Anyhow! On with the show!

Like any good nerd, I’ve been reading.  Currently, I’m reading Guns Germs and Steel, which I started reading eons ago and never finished. Subtitled “The Fates of Human Societies,” Diamond starts at the very beginning of pre-history – the dispersal of humans from Africa into the rest of the world – and works his way up. One of the first few chapters concerns the Maori and Moriori people who settled in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, respectively. The Maori and Moriori were both descendants of the same group of settlers, but due to a rather notable difference in resources developed different societies and eventually, the Moriori were destroyed by the Maori.

To sum up:

It is easy to trace how the differing environments of the Chatham Islands and of New Zealand molded the Moriori and the Maori differently.  While those ancestral Maori who first colonized that Chathams may have been farmers,. Maori tropical crops could not grow in the Chathams’ cold climate, and the colonists had no alternative except to revert to being hunter-gatherers.  Since as hunter-gatherers they did not produce crop surpluses available for redistribution or storage, they could not support and feed nonhunting craft specialists, armies, bureaucrats, and chiefs.  Their prey were seals, shellfish, nesting seabirds, and fish that could b captured by hand or with clubs and required no more elaborate technology.  In addition, the Chathams are relatively small and remote islands, capable of supporting a total population of only about 2,000 hunter-gatherers.  With no other accessible islands to colonize, the Moriori had to remain in the Chathams, and to learn how to get along with each other.  They did so by renouncing war, and they reduced potential conflicts from over population by castrating some male infants.  The result was a small, unwarlike population with simple technology and weapons, and without strong leadership.

In contrast, the northern (warmer) part of New Zealand, by far the largest island group in Polynesia, was suitable for Polynesian agriculture.  Those Maori who remained in New Zealand increased in numbers until there were more than 100,000 of them. They developed locally dense populations chronically enganged in ferocious wars with neighboring populations.  With the crop surpluses that they could grow and store, they fed craft specialists, chiefs, and part-time soldiers.  They needed and developed varied tools for growing their crops, fighting, and making art.  They erected elaborate ceremonial buildings and prodigious numbers of forts.

Diamond describes these differences as follow-up to the tragic fate of the Moriori, but I’m going backwards a bit here. This set-up should be familiar to anyone who has ever played Civilization. You start off the game and there you are, you’re on an island. There are few resources. Your civilization can’t really grow all that fast, and without specialized cities, you don’t get very far technologically. Also, without a large network of cities producing military units, the best you can get is a few archers.  If your islands don’t happen to contain copper or iron (which, let’s face it, they probably don’t), you are just fucked. Build all the archers you want, some jackass is going to come over with a force of axemen and wipe your sorry ass off the face of the Earth.

Which, sadly, is exactly what happens to the Moriori, as Diamond describes in the beginning of the chapter I just quoted. I may as well go and quote some more! Ok!

On the Chatham Islands, 500 miles east of New Zealand, centuries of independence came to a brutal end for the Moriori people in December 1835.  On November 19 of that year, a ship carrying 500 Maori armed with guns, clubs, and axes arrived, followed on December 5 by a shipload of 400 more Maori.  Groups of Maori began to walk through Moriori settlements, announcing that the Moriori were now their slaves, and killing those who objected.  An organized resistance by the Moriori could still have defeated the Maori, who were outnumbered two to one.  However, the Moriori had a tradition of resolving disputes peacefully.  They decided in a council meeting not to fight back but to offer peace, friendship, and a division of resources.

Before the Moriori could deliver that offer, the Maori attacked en masse.  Over the course of the next few days, they killed hundreds of Moriori, cooked and ate many of the bodies, and enslaved all the others, killing mostmost of them too over the next few years as it suited their whim.  A Moriori survivor recalled “[The Maori] commenced to kill us like sheep… [We] were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies.  It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed – men, women, and children, indiscriminately.” A Maori conqueror explained. “We took possession… in accordance with our customs and we killed all the people. Not one escaped. Some ran away from us, those we killed, and others we killed – but what of that? It was in accordance with our customs.”

Reading this factual summary of the fate of the Moriori immediately brought to mind the fictional account of this historical event presented in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.  Cloud Atlas weaves together six stories from six different time periods, each story containing an undercurrent of man’s inhumanity to man.  From such a bleak setup, it is nonetheless one of the most well-written and beautiful things I have ever written.

I will now commence to quote extensively, as is my wont!

The origins of the Moriori of Rekohu (the native moniker for the Chathams) remain a mystery to this day.  Mr. Evans evinces the belief they are descended from the Jews expelled from Spain, citing their hooked noses and sneering lips.  Mr. D’Arnoq’s preferred theorum, that the Moriori were once Maori whose canoes were wrecked upon these remotest of isles, is founded on similarities of tongue & mythology & thereby possess a higher carat of logic.  What is certain is that, after centuries or millenia of living in isolation, the Moriori lived as primitive a life as their woebegone cousins of Van Diemen’s Land. Arts of boatbuilding (beyond crude woven rafts used to cross the channels betwixt islands) & navigation fell into disuse.  That the terraqueous globe held other lands, trod by other feet, the Moriori dreamt not.  Indeed their language lacks a word for “race” & “Moriori” means, simply, “People.” Husbandry was not practiced, for no mammals walked these isles until passing whalers willfully marooned pigs here to propagate a parlor.  In their virgin state, the Moriori were foragers, picking up paua shellfish, diving for crayfish, plundering bird eggs, spearing seals, gather kelp & digging for grubs & roots.

Thus far, the Moriori were but a local variant of most flaxen-skirted, feather-cloaked heathens of those dwindling “blind spots” of the ocean still unschooled by the White Man.  Old Rekohu’s claim to singularity, however, lay in its unique pacific creed.  Since time immemorial, the Moriori’s priestly caste dictated that whosoever spilt a man’s blood killed his own mana - his honor, his worth, his standing & his soul. No Moriori would shelter, feed, converse with, or even see the persona non grata. If the ostracized murderer survived his first winter, the desperation of solitude usually drove him to a blowhole on Cape Young, where he took his life.

Consider this, Mr. D’Arnoq urged us.  Two thousand savages (Mr. Evans’s best guess) enshrine “Thou Shalt Not Kill” in word & in deed & frame an oral “Magna Carta” to create a harmony unknown elsewhere for the sixty centuries since Adam first tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.  War was as alien a concept to the Moriori as the telescope is to the Pygmy.  Peace, not a hiatus betwixt wars but millennia of imperishable peace, rules these far-flung islands.  Who can deny Old Rekohu lay closer to More’s Utopia than our States of Progress governed by war-hungry princelings in Versailles & Vienna, Washington & Westminster?  “Here,” declaimed Mr. D’Arnoq, “and where only, were those elusive phantasms, those noble savages, framed in flesh & blood!” (Henry, as we later made our back to the Musket confessed, “I could never describe a race of savages too backwards to throw a spear as ‘noble.’”

Glass & peace alike betray proof of fragility under repeated blows.  The first blow to the Moriori was the Union Jack, planted in Skirmish Bay’s sod in the name of King George by Lieutenant Broughton of HMS Chatham just fifty years ago.  Three years later, Broughton’s discovery was in Sydney & London chart agents & a scattering of free settlers (whose number included Mr. Evans’s father), wrecked mariners & “convicts at odds with the New South Wales Colonial Office over the terms of their incarceration” were cultivating pumpkins, onions, maize & carrots.  These they sold to needy sealers, the second blow to the Moriori’s independence, who disappointed the Natives’ hopes of prosperity by turning the surf pink with seals’ blood.  (Mr. D’Arnoq illustrated the profits by this arithmetic – a single pelt fetched 15 shillings in Canton & those pioneer sealers gathered over two thousand pelts per boat!) Within a few years the seals were found only on the outer rocks & the “sealers” too turned to farming potatoes, sheep & pig rearing on such a scale that the Chathams are now dubbed “The Garden of the Pacific.”  These parvenu farmers clear the land by bushfires that smolder beneath the peat for many seasons, surfacing in dry spells to sow renewed calamity.

The third blow to the Moriori was the whalers, now calling at Ocean Bay, Waitangi, Owenga & Te Whakaru in sizable numbers for careening, refitting & refreshing.  Whalers’ cats & rats bred like the Plagues of Egypt & ate the burrow-nesting birds whose eggs the Moriori so valued for sustenance.  Fourth, those motley maladies which cull the darker races whene’er White civilization draws near, sapped the Aboriginal census still further.

All those misfortunes the Moriori might have endured, however, were it not for reports arriving in New Zealand depicting the Chathams as a veritable Canaan of eel-stuffed lagoons, shellfish-carpeted coves & inhabitants who understand neither combat nor weapons.  To the ears of the Ngati Tama & Ngati Mutunga, two clans of the Taranaki Te Ati Awa Maori (Maori genealogy is, Mr. D’Arnoq assures us, every twig as intricate as those genealogical trees so revered by the European gentry; indeed any boy of that unlettered race can recall his grandfather’s grandfather’s name & “rank” in a trice), these rumors promised compensation for the tracts of their ancestral estates lost during the recent “Musket Wars.”  Spies were sent to test the Moriori’s mettle by violating tapu & despoiling holy sites. These provocations the Moriori faced as our Lord importuned, by “turnign the other cheek,” & the transgressors returned to New Zealand confirming the Moriori’s apparent pusillanimity.  The tattooed Maori conquistadores found their single-barked armada in Captain Harewood of the brig Rodney, who in the dying months of 1835, agreed to transport nine hundred Maori & seven war canoes in two voyages, in guerno for seed potatoes, firearms, pigs, a great supply of scraped flax & a cannon. (Mr. D’Arnoq encountered Harewood five years ago, penurious in a Bay of Islands tavern.  He at first denied being the Rodney’s Harewood, then swore he had been coerced into conveying the Blacks, but was unclear how this coercion had been worked upon him.)

The Rodney embarked from Port Nicholas in November, but its heathen cargo of five hundred men, women & children, packed tight in the hold for the six-day voyage, bilged in ordure & sea-sickness & lacking in the barest sufficiency of water, anchored at Whangatete Inlet in such a state that, had they but the will,  even the Moriori might have slain their Martial brethren.  The Goodly Samaritans chose instead to share the diminished abundance of Rekohu in preference to destroying their mana by bloodletting & nursed the sick & dying Maori back to health.  “Maori had come to Rekohu before,” Mr. D’Arnoq explained, “yet gone away again, so the Moriori assumed the colonists would likewise leave them in peace.”

The Moriori’s generosity was rewarded when Cpt. Harewood returned from New Zealand with another four hundred Maori.  Now the strangers proceeded to lay claim to Chatham by takahi, a Maori ritual translated as “Walking the Land to Possess the Land.”  Old Rekohu was thus partitioned & the Moriori informed that they were now Maori vassals.  In early December, when some dozen Aborignals protested, they were casually slain with tomahawks.  The Maori proved themselves apt pupils of the English in “the dark arts of colonization.”

Chatham Isle encloses a vast eastern salt lagoon, Te Whanga, very nearly an island sea but fecundated by the ocean at high tide through the lagoon’s “lips” at Te Awapatiki.  Fourteen years ago, the Moriori men held on that sacred ground a parliament.  Three days it lasted, its object to settle this question: Would the spillage of Maori blood also destroy one’s mana?  Younger men argued the creed of Peace did not encompass foreign cannibals of whom their ancestors knew nothing.  The Moriori must kill or be killed.  Elders urged appeasement, for as long as the Moriori preserved their mana with their land, their gods & ancestors would deliver the race from harm. “Embrace your enemy,” the elders urged, “to prevent him from striking you.” (“Embrace your enemy,” Henry quipped, “to feel his dagger tickle your kidneys.”)

The elders won the day, but it mattered little. “When lacking numerical superiority,” Mr. D’Arnoq told us, “the Maori seize an advantage by striking first & hardest, has many hapless British & French can testify from their graves.”  The Ngati Tama & Ngati Mutunga had held councils of their own.  The Moriori menfolk returned from their parliament to ambushes & a night of infamy beyond nightmare of butchery, of villages torched, of rapine, of men & women, impaled in rows on beaches, of children hiding in holes, scened & dismembered by hunting dogs.  Some chiefs kept an eye to the morrow & slew only enough to instill terrified obediance in the remainder.  Other chiefs were not so restrained.  On Waitangi Beach fifty Moriori were beheaded, filleted, wrapped in flax leaves, then baked in a giant earth oven with yams & sweet potatoes.  Not half those Moriori who had seen Old Rekohu’s last sunset were alive to see the Maori sun rise. (“Less than a hundred pure-blooded Moriori now remain,” mourned D’Arnoq. “On paper the British Crown freed these from the yoke of slavery years ago, but the Maori do not care for paper.  We are one week’s sail from the Governor’s House & Her Majesty holds no garrison on Chatham.”)

I asked, why had not the Whites stayed the hands of the Maori during the massacre?

The answer to that comes from the Maori themselves – it was not according to our customs.  To expect benevolent intercession from the peoples who enslaved and slaughtered the Native American Indians is about as reasonable as expecting pigs to fly.  That’s not to say that individual Whites were incapable of compassionate aid, but a colonial power isn’t going to intercede on behalf of the oppressed just because someone else is doing the colonizing.

I don’t think that I’m alone in believing that we need new customs, but this is about the past, not the future. The only thing we can gain from what has occured before is a knowledge of our predecessor’s mistakes and the will not to make them again.

Until once again, we start up Civ and slaughter some useless jerks sitting on an island chain with no metal to make decent weapons.

44 08.0′ S
175 56.5′ W

Sure enough, we’re all well aware that the 3200kms we’ve sailed so far amount to little more than a shake-down cruise compared to the passage we’ve now begun. The tiny island group of the Fourty-Fours are off to port, the last bits of land we’ll see for the next month. Our bow’s pointed due-east on a heading of 090T and we’re cruising along riding the bottom of a friendly high-pressure system.

We’re intending to follow the wind between 42 and 45 S, and then make a turn towards the south when we get to 100 W in about three weeks. This isn’t the most direct route to Ushuaia, which is down around 57 S, but it should increase our odds of avoiding the nasty Southern Ocean storms and stray Antarctic icebergs. Along our intended flightplan, we’ve got a little over 8000km to go.

Our last few days in the Chathams were good and casual. One of the fishermen in Port Hutt agreed to lend us his truck so we were able to drive in to Waitangi and load up on fresh food. While we were at the store a generous lady offered us produce from her garden for our trip, so we stopped by and are now carrying a half-dozen head of very fresh bok choi and silverbeet. After our run-in with Betty T., the runaway fishing boat that unapologetically rammed us on the weekend, it was a positive way to end our stay on the Islands. Things are looking good on the water, and Josep’s about to cook us up an octopus dinner. I’m skeptical about this one – it looks like a puddle of unidentifiable chilled jelly in a tupperware at the moment – but I figure it’s worth a try.

Port Hutt
Chatham Island

We’ve been spending the last couple of days pretty casually, anchored out in sleepy little Port Hutt. Our only real encounter with the locals took place a few days ago. We’d been driving around for the day, and when we got back we found that one of the local fishing boats anchored in the bay had dragged its anchor all over the place and, judging by the blue skid marks on Tom Bowling’s side, had taken a swing at us on the way by. As it went, it managed to get our anchor chains all tangled together.

Fairly pissed by the damage, Ralph went in to ask the locals whose boat it was that was causing the trouble. Sure enough, the fisherman was there and the whole town seemed to have been watching all afternoon. “Oh yeah, it looked like your boat was getting bashed around a bit”. No one felt the need to do anything about it, of course. The only thing that seemed to get them remotely concerned was when Ralph pointed out that we may have dislodged his anchor when we retrieved ours from the tangle. Luckily the damage was minor and we won’t have a problem getting away in a few days, but it’s amazing how little consideration people have for outsiders. It’s almost as though they were enjoying our misfortune.

Oh well, that episode behind us, Ralph went for a dive across the bay this afternoon looking for a shipwreck, and bagged a huge quantity of cray (like lobster, but without the big front pinchers), paua (abalone), eel and octopus. Invoking the ‘living off the land’ clause in my personal vegetarian policy, I enjoyed an orgasmic dinner of fresh lobster and beer. We’ve now got enough seafood onboard to last us a week, since a few of the lobsters were bigger than 7 lbs and will barely fit in our biggest pot. Right on – we’re happy here for a bit longer at least.

Port Hutt
Chatham Islands

43 49.0′ S
176 42.3′ W

But maybe not civilization… We pulled into the Chatham Islands last night around midnight after spending the last few days cruising along with a stiff westerly. We’ve now crossed the 180� east-west divide that separates the hemispheres, but haven’t crossed the date line since the Chathams managed to gerrymander their way onto the left side of it.

The Chathams are an interesting place. We spent the day cruising around the island in our rented SUV, provided to us at a not-so-competitive price by a guy whose family owns most of the main town. Unlike some of the reports we’d heard, people here seem to be pretty friendly, but as I say it’s an interesting place. The Moriori were the first to settle here and had a peaceful population of about 2,500 people going until around 1830. That’s when the Maoris, based in NZ, came over with their newly acquired European guns and essentially committed genocide to clear them from the land. The Moriori were pacifists, and the chiefs decided that they would maintain their customs and refuse to physically resist the Maori attacks. The last surviving Moriori died in 1970, their entire race wiped out.

The place is incredibly isolated. Despite the fact that our guide is convinced that tourism and the economy are going to take off, the population has dropped from 700 to 630 in the past few years. Kids have to go to the main islands of NZ to go to high school, and apparently their families often just move across with them. It’s also an expensive place to live since everything is flown in, so unless you’re raking in money from your quota in their thriving fishery, you’re likely to have a hard time. There aren’t really what you’d call an actual town on the islands – everyone seems to live sprawled all over the countryside. Sheep and cattle appear to outnumber humans by a considerable factor. Visitors, especially on yachts, are few and far between.

But it’s beautiful in its own way: Sandy beaches with huge surf, trees that grow reaching to the north-east along with the prevailing winds, green hills as far as the eye can see, imposing cliffs of sandstone and granite, shipwrecks around every corner… it’s something to behold. Fresh produce gets flown in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we’re planning to hang around into early next week so we can stock up before leaving.