New Zealand Colonial Propaganda: The Use of Cannibalism, Enslavement, Genocide and Myth to Legitimise Colonial Conquest

Authors

Keywords:

Genocide, Cannibalism, Moriori, Maori, New Zealand, Polynesia, Chatham Islands,

Abstract

The eighteenth and nineteenth century European invasion of the Pacific led to many atrocities, but - as a separate 'internal' part of the progressive European conquest of Polynesia - none was more brutal or more devastating than the Maori invasion of the Chatham Islands and the subsequent slaughter of the unwarlike Moriori, the indigenous inhabitants of this small isolated island group. Curiously, and for far too long, has the so-called 'Moriori holocaust' been manipulated and incorporated into a founding legend that actually legitimises the subsequent British colonisation of New Zealand. It is a fabricated myth, and one that continues to influence modern race relations in that country.

References

Blank, Jacinta ‘Imaging Moriori: A History of Ideas of a People in the Twentieth Century’, thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in History at the University of Canterbury, 2007.

Brookfield, F.M., ‘Legitimation of the 1840 Revolution; and the Special Case of the Chathams’, in Waitangi & Indigenous Rights: Revolution, Law and Legitimation, 2nd edn (Auckland, Auckland University Press, 2006).

Clayworth, Peter ‘’An Indolent and Chilly Folk’: The Development of the Idea of the ‘Moriori Myth’’, thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History at the University of Otago, 2001.

King, Michael, Moriori: A People Rediscovered (Auckland, Viking, 1989).

McGeorge, Colin, ‘Race and the Maori in New Zealand Primary School Curriculum Since 1877’, Journal of the Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society, 10.1 (Autumn 1981), 13-23.

The Origins of the First New Zealanders, ed. by Douglas Sutton (Auckland, NZ: Auckland University Press, 1994).

Simmons, D.R. The Great New Myth: A Study of the Discovery and Origin Traditions of the Maori (Wellington, A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1976).

Skinner, H.D., The Moriori of Chatham Islands, Memoirs of Bernice P. Bishop Museum of Ethnology and Natural History, 9.1, 1923.

Sutton, Douglas,‘A Culture History of the Chatham Islands’, Journal of the Polynesian Society, 89.1 (1980), pp. 67-93.

Sutton, Douglas, ‘The Whence of the Moriori’, New Zealand Journal of History, 19.1 (1985), pp. 3-13.

Walker, Ranginui, ‘The Moriori Myth’, Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End, rev. edn (Auckland, Penguin Books, 2004 (1990).

Waitangi Tribunal, Rekohu: A Report on Moriori and Ngati Mutunga Claims in the Chatham Islands, 2001.

Downloads

Published

2012-01-08

Issue

Vol. 27 (2012): The Outreach of Australian Folkloric Writings

Section

International and Comparative Studies

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Copyright of items in their Australian Folklore format, and any associated fees (e.g.CAL), remains the property of the Association. This includes making articles freely available on the journal's website. 
  2. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
  3. Authors are welcome to archive their pre-print and post-print pdf copies of their articles under the SHERPA RoMEO 'Green' copyright classification.
  4. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.