20.6 The Moriori Law of Non-violence
357
Possibly we can regard the evolution of a law of non-violence in the Chathams
as an example of the extreme conservatism Flannery speaks of as being necessary
for a small society to survive in isolation. The risk that tribal conflict might reduce
genetic diversity is too great for conflict to be allowed to erupt. In the Chatham
Islands the risk of an uncontrolled escalation of violence was contained by allowing
one-to-one combat to settle a dispute with the proviso that the combat ended as soon
as the first blood was drawn. It is a terrible irony that this strategy, which protected
an isolated society for two and a half thousand years, led Moriori into a position of
extreme vulnerability when they were attacked in 1835 by aggressors from Te Ati
Awa, a Maori culture with quite opposite cultural prerogatives.
Michael King [7] quotes the traditional story of the origin of the Law of Nunuku,
the Moriori law of non-violence. The fact that cannibalism is mentioned in the
tradition and that the warring tribes in the Chathams, Wheteina and Rauru, were
continuing the conflict that drove them from Eastern Polynesia and led to their
migration to the Chatham Islands makes it very clear that medieval migrants, rather
than the indigenous Hiti, were involved. This being the case it seems likely that a
non-violent tradition may have been in place in the Chathams a long time before,
and that tradition is describing the imposition of a much older Moriori custom or
law on the medieval migrants. Indigenous tribes in New Zealand saw the medieval
migrants as bringing cannibalism and violence with them from Eastern Polynesia.
The same pattern seems to be true for the medieval migrants to the Chathams. The
migrants in the Rangimata canoe are said to have been captained by Mihiti of the
Wheteina tribe and the Rangihoua also brought members of the Wheteina tribe to
the Chathams after their defeat by the Ng¯ a Rauru in their homeland. The presence in
the Chathams of two tribes who had been involved in conflict in Eastern Polynesia
possibly explains their continuing conflict in the Chatham Islands [8].
In King’s account Nunuku-whenua, sickened by the bloodshed and cannibalism
arising from the conflict of two tribes, Rauru and Wheteina, fighting at Karewa on
the western side of Te Whanga lagoon, pushed between the warring parties and
ordered each side to retire:
Stricken with stupefaction at this apparition, without striking another blow, they so retired.
‘Follow me!’ Palsied with a fear of the unknown, they followed. When they reached
the shore he cried: ‘You, Rauru, sit there; you, Wheteina, here!’ They sat accordingly.
‘Onlookers, gather all arms and stack them there!’ Obediently the arms were stacked. ‘Build
a fire and cast the arms on top!’ The fire was built, the spears and claymores of wood were
burnt, yet no word was spoken in protest. ‘Rauru! Wheteina! arise and meet!’ They arose
and met. ‘Touch nose to nose!’ Nose to nose was touched. ‘Listen all! From now and forever, never again let there be war as this day has been! From today on forget the taste of
human flesh! Are you fish that eat their young?’
So it was there agreed that because men get angry and during such anger feel the will to
strike, that so they may, but only with a rod the thickness of a thumb, and one stretch of the
arms in length, and thrash away, but that on an abrasion of the hide, or first sign of blood,
all should consider honour satisfied. ‘And,’ said the teller, ‘all obeyed! Why? Because of
the Nunuku curse: “May your bowels rot the day you disobey!”’ [7].
European contact catapulted Moriori towards an extinction they had avoided for
two and a half thousand years. The seal population on which they depended for
357
Possibly we can regard the evolution of a law of non-violence in the Chathams
as an example of the extreme conservatism Flannery speaks of as being necessary
for a small society to survive in isolation. The risk that tribal conflict might reduce
genetic diversity is too great for conflict to be allowed to erupt. In the Chatham
Islands the risk of an uncontrolled escalation of violence was contained by allowing
one-to-one combat to settle a dispute with the proviso that the combat ended as soon
as the first blood was drawn. It is a terrible irony that this strategy, which protected
an isolated society for two and a half thousand years, led Moriori into a position of
extreme vulnerability when they were attacked in 1835 by aggressors from Te Ati
Awa, a Maori culture with quite opposite cultural prerogatives.
Michael King [7] quotes the traditional story of the origin of the Law of Nunuku,
the Moriori law of non-violence. The fact that cannibalism is mentioned in the
tradition and that the warring tribes in the Chathams, Wheteina and Rauru, were
continuing the conflict that drove them from Eastern Polynesia and led to their
migration to the Chatham Islands makes it very clear that medieval migrants, rather
than the indigenous Hiti, were involved. This being the case it seems likely that a
non-violent tradition may have been in place in the Chathams a long time before,
and that tradition is describing the imposition of a much older Moriori custom or
law on the medieval migrants. Indigenous tribes in New Zealand saw the medieval
migrants as bringing cannibalism and violence with them from Eastern Polynesia.
The same pattern seems to be true for the medieval migrants to the Chathams. The
migrants in the Rangimata canoe are said to have been captained by Mihiti of the
Wheteina tribe and the Rangihoua also brought members of the Wheteina tribe to
the Chathams after their defeat by the Ng¯ a Rauru in their homeland. The presence in
the Chathams of two tribes who had been involved in conflict in Eastern Polynesia
possibly explains their continuing conflict in the Chatham Islands [8].
In King’s account Nunuku-whenua, sickened by the bloodshed and cannibalism
arising from the conflict of two tribes, Rauru and Wheteina, fighting at Karewa on
the western side of Te Whanga lagoon, pushed between the warring parties and
ordered each side to retire:
Stricken with stupefaction at this apparition, without striking another blow, they so retired.
‘Follow me!’ Palsied with a fear of the unknown, they followed. When they reached
the shore he cried: ‘You, Rauru, sit there; you, Wheteina, here!’ They sat accordingly.
‘Onlookers, gather all arms and stack them there!’ Obediently the arms were stacked. ‘Build
a fire and cast the arms on top!’ The fire was built, the spears and claymores of wood were
burnt, yet no word was spoken in protest. ‘Rauru! Wheteina! arise and meet!’ They arose
and met. ‘Touch nose to nose!’ Nose to nose was touched. ‘Listen all! From now and forever, never again let there be war as this day has been! From today on forget the taste of
human flesh! Are you fish that eat their young?’
So it was there agreed that because men get angry and during such anger feel the will to
strike, that so they may, but only with a rod the thickness of a thumb, and one stretch of the
arms in length, and thrash away, but that on an abrasion of the hide, or first sign of blood,
all should consider honour satisfied. ‘And,’ said the teller, ‘all obeyed! Why? Because of
the Nunuku curse: “May your bowels rot the day you disobey!”’ [7].
European contact catapulted Moriori towards an extinction they had avoided for
two and a half thousand years. The seal population on which they depended for