The government has given NZ$6 million to a trust fund for the preservation of Moriori culture – a Polynesian people many New Zealanders think are extinct.
The last full-blooded Moriori, Tommy Solomon, passed away in 1933 but some with Moriori bloodlines still live on the land they have lived on for around 400 years, the Chatham Islands or Rekohu.
The NZ$6 million dollar grant was gifted by Prime Minister Helen Clark and MP Ruth Dyson as part of the launch of the Te Keke Tara Moriori Identity Trust on 17 June at Te Papa Museum, Wellington.
The Trust seeks to preserve and promote the identity, heritage, culture and legacy of peace of Moriori, as well as quash widespread myths about them. This includes the belief that they are culturally and physically inferior to Maori, who are said to have driven them from mainland New Zealand.
Speaking on behalf of the Hokotehi Moriori Trust – a trust which represents those of Moriori descent– Shirley King said the event was an historic step for Moriori and all New Zealanders.
"It sets the basis upon which we can continue to rebuild our culture and language and to continue to honour the legacy of peace left to us by our karapuna (ancestors).”
Clark noted that the trust acknowledged Moriori as the ‘foundation people’ of the Chathams and would be beneficial to all New Zealanders.
“The deed of gift between the Crown and the Trust agrees that the revival of Moriori culture and identity is an important and worthwhile objective for the benefit of Moriori descendants and for the benefit of all people in New Zealand generally.”
Maui Solomon from the Hokotehi Moriori Trust said the NZ$6m will be invested and revenue generated from that will fund education projects to counter the misinformation that ran in school journals and the revival of the Moriori language.
He has also hinted the money may go toward establishing a national centre of peace and conflict studies at Otago University.
Due to their small population, Moriori developed a pacifist political stance on the Chatham Islands, replacing warfare with dispute resolution.
However, this was to their demise in 1835 when two Taranaki iwi, Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama, sent a war party from Wellington. Subsequently 300 were killed and the rest enslaved.
The Chathams came under New Zealand's control in 1842. But it took another 20 years before slavery ended.
Moriori have lodged a Waitangi Tribunal claim in regards to this.
Clark said the gifting was not a Treaty of Waitangi Settlement. However, Moriori have made progress on their claim in which settlement negotiations started in 2004.
The Moriori Waitangi Tribunal claim is that the Crown failed to protect their land and their people from Maori invasion and slavery, and for failing to recognise Moriori as the tangata whenua of the Chathams.
Moriori are not just confined to the Chathams, the 2006 census counted 924 living around New Zealand, with the majority living in Christchurch (114), 69 living in Invercargill and the rest in the Chatham Islands (75).
