Ko wai taua iwi?

[pelliondance]

Prior to Maori immigration, a dark-skinned race, the Moriori, of whose origin nothing is known, settled on the eastern coast of North Island; it is believed that they came to hunt the moa, a wingless bird about 3.7 m (about 12 ft) tall, which is now extinct. Some of these people were absorbed into the Maori population; the remainder were driven out

Comments

[adrexia]

Google says it's "28 Oct 2004".

[adrexia]

But the website screams 1995 to me.

[pelliondance]

Well-googled. I don't see any acknowledgment on the page to Encarta 95, but that's where it's from.

[seaxred]

Ah, the Great Moriori Myth.

[pelliondance]

That's the one. Now superseded by the nearly equivalent Great Waitaha Myth. I've been sorting out books, and have just rediscovered my copy of Ancient Celtic New Zealand by Martin Doutré. I think Sandra picked it up for me in a Paper Plus sale for $5 or so a few years ago.

[cannopener]

Clearly I'm well behind the times. What's the myth? That the Moriori existed, or that they died out?

[pelliondance]

The Great Moriori Myth was the story that the Moriori were an earlier and inferior Melanesian people, who arrived after Kupe's visit and occupied mainland NZ before Māori settled there. The Māori conquered and ate or assimilated them, apart from a few who fled to the Chathams. Apparently some political capital was made out of this in justifying colonial land-grabbing.

The Great Waitaha myth is the story that Waitaha were an earlier (2000 years ago or more) light-skinned people whose superior civilisation was destroyed by the less advanced Māori.