What to do in the Chatham Islands: Culture, history and the plight of the Moriori people

Hear the tragic yet uplifting story of the Moriori people on Chatham Island. Photo / Getty Images

One of the world’s most enlightened and peaceful cultures was created right here in our corner of the globe. Journey to the Chatham Islands to hear the moving story of the Moriori people, writes Ben Leahy

Everyone in our tour group is touched as Maui Solomon tells of his Moriori ancestor’s tragic past.

Yet for Tania, it hits deeper than most.

Her story doesn’t, at first glance, appear to have much in common with the Moriori.

As the original inhabitants of Rēkohu/Chatham Island, 800km east of mainland New Zealand, the Moriori lived hundreds of years on the island archipelago before they were murdered and enslaved in a horrific 1800s genocide at the hands of Māori invaders.

Tania, by contrast, is a Pākehā farmer and single mum from Whanganui.

Yet she’s also experienced fear in an abusive relationship.

She sees dignity in the way the Moriori held on to their peaceful beliefs in the face of death and how today’s descendants have strived to bring their culture back to life.

She has also only been able to let go of the demons of her past by embracing “forgiveness”.

“The path of peace and spiritual grace is the only way to feel positive and move forward,” she tells me.

Tania’s surprise connection to Rēkohu’s original people shows how their history and culture is fast becoming one of the Chathams’ key tourist attractions alongside the islands’ famous seafood and friendly locals.

And being on a tour is one of the best ways to hear the Moriori’s story.

A group of 10 pays $35 each to meet Solomon at the statue of his grandfather Tommy Solomon, said to have been the last full-blooded Moriori.

Solomon – who previously served as chair of the Hokotehi Moriori Trust and helped his people gain a 2021 Treaty of Waitangi settlement – says that although Moriori history is not a secret, many Kiwis still hold misconceptions about his people.

“I’ve spent 40 years of my adult life trying to have the truth told,” he says as we stand in a windswept but beautiful corner of the island.

One of the most insidious myths is that Moriori were a racially inferior people driven out of mainland New Zealand by Māori, he says.

Solomon says Moriori traditions instead tell of their people arriving on Rēkohu direct from eastern Polynesia, before another migration of people arrived from the mainland.

Then for 500 years, they developed their own culture and language.

Most striking is tribal elder Nunuku’s pacifist teachings. It allowed Moriori to create a largely peaceful society that outlawed killing.

Disputes were instead settled through ritual staff fights that would end when first blood was drawn, Solomon tells us.

Visitors John and Reina Savage stand next to a centuries-old Moriori tree carving on the Chatham Islands. Photo / Ben Leahy

This was reinforced through rite of passage ceremonies where young Moriori would be shown old weapons and told why they are no longer used.

However, two Taranaki iwi - Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama – shattered this peaceful existence by invading the islands on European ships in 1835.

Solomon says the Māori outsiders arrived weak and sickly after the long sea voyage.

The Moriori could have attacked the arrivals and killed them then and there, he says.

Instead, they cared for them, according to their peaceful tradition.

When the invaders later began to attack locals, the Moriori gathered in a hui to discuss how to respond.

The younger men wanted to fight, but the elders ruled they should keep their sacred covenant of peace, Solomon says.

It led to about 300 of the 2000 Moriori being killed – often in horrific ways – with the rest being enslaved for three decades, where they were banned from speaking their own language and even marrying.

They begged for help from New Zealand’s governor George Grey in 1862, arguing that slavery was supposed to be officially abolished.

But the governor didn’t help. Instead in 1870, the newly set up Native Land Court awarded 97 per cent of the land to the Māori iwi and just 3 per cent to Moriori, Solomon says.

Only about 100 Moriori or 10 per cent of the population were still alive and living on the islands at that time.

“That’s genocide, right? I’ve got no qualms in saying that,” Solomon says.

It’s a devastating history that has begun to be addressed only in the past 40 years, with Solomon and other Moriori engaging in long struggles in court and sometimes with their neighbours on the island.

Maui Solomon, pictured beside the statue of his grandfather, Tommy Solomon, is helping lead the revival of Moriori culture on the Chatham Islands. Photo / Ben Leahy

Still, the Moriori have now concluded a treaty settlement, opened a marae and have 2000 registered members in their trust.

And although there is work to do, they are moving forward by focusing on Nunuku’s peaceful traditions about what “unites us rather than divides”, Solomon says.

“I’m still proud that our ancestors had the moral conviction to stand by their covenant of peace,” he says.

“Because as a species on this planet, are we going to keep fighting one another until we’re all wiped out or are we going to find a new way?”

“In these islands, they found a new way and it was very successful for 500 years.”

Tania is one, who hopes the Moriori way spreads.

“All we’ve got is each other and our community,” she says.

Checklist

Rēkohu/Chatham Island

GETTING THERE

Air Chathams flies to Chatham Island from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

DETAILS

hotelchathamstours.co.nz