The Moriori were Indigenous to Aotearoa Myth(s)

During my time here in Aotearoa New Zealand it has already been more than a handful of encounters I had with these mystical people we call “conspiracy theorists”. From wild conspiracies about COVID, to blaming everything the coalition government messes up on “the previous administration” and, perhaps the most curious to me of them all “that the Moriori were in New Zealand before the Māori came over and killed them”.¹ There might be variations of the story but it usually remains the same for the main parts. Incidentally, the people spewing this tend to be the same ones having a problem with using the Māori name for New Zealand “Aotearoa”, translated in English to “The Land of the Long White Cloud”. According to Māori oral tradition, this name came from Kupe’s wife, Kuramārōtini, upon first seeing the North Island.²

So where did these myths originate from anyway? Well, according to André Brett in Chapter 11: ‘I’m Not Even Making That Up’ Myths About Moriori and Denials of Indigeneity in New Zealand within the book titled History in a Post-Truth World: “Early accounts describe Moriori as similar to Māori. Ernest
Dieffenbach wrote unambiguously in 1840 that Moriori are a Polynesian
people, and Alexander Shand in 1885 held ‘little doubt’ of their shared
origins with Māori. Shand, a Rēkohu resident, collected Moriori tradi-
tions in collaboration with an esteemed elder and survivor of the 1835
invasion, Hirawanu Tapu. Shand’s publications are, despite the filter of
his interpretations, the most significant record of how Moriori in the
19th century understood their culture. Two respected ethnologists, S.
Percy Smith and Elsdon Best, swept aside this accurate depiction in the
1910s.“

“Best and Smith collected Māori oral traditions in the belief that
they could form a coherent and accurate chronological narrative once
collated and shorn of magical or fantastical elements. Smith obtained
a document purporting to tell authentic, hidden Māori traditions, and
Peter Clayworth explains that both men accepted its veracity on account
of the ostensibly ancient quality of its narrative and that it filled impor-
tant gaps in their knowledge. They could, therefore, rationalise the
deprecation of contradictory traditions and reject the research of others,
even that of Smith’s friend Shand.”

“Smith and Best possessed strong networks to disseminate their views,
and other scholars either lacked the authority and connections for their
critiques to be influential or held such respect for Smith and Best that
they did not publicise disagreements until both men died.”

Since approximately 1916, the “pre-Māori myth” was taught in public schools and it was not until the 1980s that a more accurate account of the Moriori reached the New Zealand public. However, the myth was dismissed as early as 1923 by Henry Skinner’s The Morioris of Chatham Islands. Subsequent research only confirmed Skinner’s findings, however, the persistence of the pre-Māori myth in public, to our dismay, would continue for decades. Nowadays, the academic consensus is clear on this aspect and understands that both the Māori and Moriori are from Eastern Polynesian origins and that most of them either came straight to Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) and/or settled in Aotearoa briefly before moving to Rēkohu (this precise bit is not quite settled yet though).³⁴

Contrary to subscribers of these myths, the Moriori are, not only still alive, but thriving as they recover from their past.⁵ Not only that, but they’re also actively fighting to set the record straight when it comes to how their history is told and, often, mistold and weaponised for political ends that seek to delegitimise Tangata Whenua and push divisive rhetoric.⁶⁷⁸

From History in a Post-Truth World:

There is no single ‘Moriori myth’, even if the term is used regularly.
Blank avoids the term because ‘it does not capture the complexity of
ideas held by those influenced by the work of the two ethnologists’, S.
Percy Smith and Elsdon Best, who popularised false claims about Mori-
ori origins. She prefers ‘stories’. I consider it sufficient to clarify that I am
discussing two of the most persistent myths, which I dub the ‘pre-Māori
myth’ and the ‘alt-right myth’. The pre-Māori myth is that Moriori were
autochthonous to mainland New Zealand and exterminated by Māori
colonisers, a myth used to deny Māori indigeneity. The alt-right myth is
that the experience of the Moriori proves the folly of pacifism, a myth
that misappropriates specific details of Moriori history to prosecute
political arguments overseas.

We have already covered the “pre-Māori myth”, now I will finalise by discussing a bit of the “alt-right myth” and how, in effect, alt-right rhetoric from overseas might be feeding into our national discourse surrounding Tangata Whenua. This myth feeds from the misconception that Moriori were an ‘inferior’ Melanesian race and that it was only natural and ‘on par with evolutionary course’ that they would meet their demise due to inferiority somehow being related to pacifism, which in turn is related to weakness.

This rhetoric is then used to justify white supremacy and militarism at large, implying that “the superior race will meet the same demise as the inferior races if they don’t support achieving their goals through violence”. It also serves the same purpose but for international white “struggle” that the pre-Māori Myth does in that it seeks to justify colonisation because indigenous people did it to themselves too so they have nothing to argue against others doing the same to them. It’s only “natural” for it happen.

Nowadays, as I have alluded to in the opening of this blog post, these myths seem to be complementary to wider embracing of conspiracy theories that these people were already vulnerable to. As COVID-19 lockdowns within Aotearoa New Zealand and, arguably, in the world at large demonstrated, pretty much the same political groups that peddled the pre-Māori myth were, unsurprisingly, vulnerable to conspiracy theories.⁹

This explains, then, why people with other agendas have sought to co-opt Māori
(or, at least, the symbols of Māori culture) into their own conspiracy theories. The
most curious and vicious examples in the pandemic have been white nationalists/
supremacists in Aotearoa extending olive branches to people they have previously
targeted in order to join forces and uncover the “real” conspiracy. Alt-right figures
like Damien de Ment, Lee Williams, Philip Arps, and the like, all of whom have had
history of attacking both Māori and people of color as part of their promulgation
of race-based conspiracy theories surrounding things like the Great Replacement or
Great Reset theses, have tried to leverage Māori groups in order to make their par-
ticular conspiracy theories more palatable to the public (Clark 2021).¹⁰

Not to mention, Māori themselves have been targeted by conspiracy theories partially because the government failed to adequately address iwi concerns (yet again) and pay heed to health professionals when they pointed out that we should aim to give care to Māori as prompt as possible given their vulnerability to diseases as a group. In turn, other self-interested entities took advantage of these events in order to further spread their own agendas. These circumstances led to further obscuring of the fact these groups were the very same that have historically been racist towards Māori, even attacked them, and are now extending a hand of solidarity to uncover the “truth” (spread misinformation and pretending to care about them).

So it seems that the alt-right myth, far from staying overseas, has made it all the way back to Aotearoa New Zealand, together with other conspiracy theories that have either been present since before or have surfaced here thanks to the globalisation of these and the unfortunate events that makes good breeding grounds for these ideas to take hold, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Sixth National coalition government in power and continuously blaming the previous administration for their own short-comings, these conspiracy theories threaten to become louder.

The latest example I know of the alt-right co-opting Māori elements is Brian Tamaki’s Destiny Church which, if I recall correctly, quite recently was protesting against immigration and other issues such as religion.¹¹ There is a good chance there are more recent shenanigans by the alt-right that I might not be aware of, so anybody reading this that might give me a pointer it will be appreciated. Lastly, I want to close this by re-emphasising a quote from History in a Post-Truth World:

“The term ‘post- truth’ has been used to designate a political and cultural
moment in which feeling takes priority over evidence. This assertion is
complicated by the fact that, as numerous commentators have pointed
out, mendacity is not new in politics. Instead, post-truth describes not
lying in politics but what facilitates it: either technology – social media
and the Internet more broadly – or the growth of an audience for post-
truth politics. What is new is ‘not the mendacity of politicians but the
public’s response to it’, being ‘indifference, and finally . . . collusion’.”

It is all of our collective responsibility to address these myths, not simply by fact-checking and correcting them as they present but to foster an environment of caring, understanding and listening. There’s always a good chance that people vulnerable to conspiracy theories are not always necessarily bad people, such as the generations of people growing up with the Moriori myths being taught at schools. After all, it wasn’t until relatively recently that we even began correcting this mistake in a public setting.

1. https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/03-08-2018/the-moriori-myth-and-why-its-still-with-us ↩︎
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20190821031335/https://teara.govt.nz/en/first-peoples-in-maori-tradition/page-6 ↩︎
3. https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/79760636/atholl-anderson-where-did-maori-come-from ↩︎
4. https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/03-08-2018/the-moriori-myth-and-why-its-still-with-us ↩︎
5. https://e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/moriori-still-setting-the-record-straight/ ↩︎
6. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/imageserver/periodicals/P29pZD1UVVRBTkcxOTg3MDIwMS4xLjI1JmdldHBkZj10cnVl ↩︎
7. https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2023/12/10/moriori-are-not-extinct-you-are-talking-to-one-maui-solomon-refutes-winston-peters-claim/ ↩︎
8. Solomon, M.; Thorpe, S. (2012). Taonga Moriori: Recording and revival. Journal of Material Culture, 17(3), 245–263. doi:10.1177/1359183512453533  ↩︎
9. Marques, M. D., Hill, S. R., Clarke, E. J. R., Williams, M. N., Ling, M., Kerr, J. R., … Sibley, C. G. (2022). Democracy and belief in conspiracy theories in New Zealand. Australian Journal of Political Science, 57(3), 264–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2022.2122773
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10. Dentith, M. R. X. (2023). COVID-19 IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND. Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective, 381. ↩︎
11. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/564776/destiny-church-protesters-set-flags-on-fire-in-auckland-rally ↩︎