Tree carvings a spiritual link to Moriori past

Tree carvings a spiritual link to Moriori past

The photograph above depicts a Chatham Island dendroglyph, or rakau hokoairo. With no greenstone and limited timber on the islands, the Moriori inhabitants expressed themselves over many centuries by carving these representations of human figures, birds, fish, plants and animals into the trunks of kopi (karaka) trees. While there is much speculation, no one knows for sure what they actually mean, although they seem to be associated with death or remembrance. They are a powerful spiritual link with the Moriori past.

The Moriori are descended from a Māori tribe who settled in Rēkohu, the largest of the Chatham Islands (870 km to the east of New Zealand) in the late 15th century. Living in a harsh environment where many plants from the mainland didn't survive, they learnt to conserve their limited resources through a system of rules and rituals. They also developed a pacifist society that substituted warfare with ritualised fighting and conciliation. Already weakened by European diseases imported by sealers and whalers at the end of the 18th century, the Moriori population was decimated in 1835 by an invasion of Taranaki Māori, who massacred the majority of the population and enslaved the rest. From a population of around 2000, only 101 were still alive by 1862. The last Moriori of unmixed ancestry, Tommy Solomon, died in 1933, however several thousand descendants of mixed ancestry are still alive today.

Many taonga relating to Moriori are held amongst the rich array of items in the Alexander Turnbull Library's collections.

Along with published books and videos, the Library also holds manuscripts, photographs, drawings and prints, maps and oral histories relating to Moriori history, culture and traditions. Notable amongst these are 'Moriori whakapapa' a manuscript written by Minarapa Tamahiwaki in 1889, and an oral history recording made for the New Zealand Post Office Oral History Project between 1984 and 1986. In this interview, Jim McLaughlin talks about some of the significant events that occurred during his career as a radio inspector, including the funeral of Tommy Solomon.

Those interested in finding out more about collections relating to Moriori should contact the Turnbull Library.

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image