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Moriori
Moriori
The indigenous people of Rēkohu (Chatham Island) and Rangihaute (Pitt Island), 767 km south-east of mainland New Zealand. Guided by ‘Nunuku’s law’, a covenant laid down by Nunuku, a high-ranking Moriori chief who forbade murder and the eating of human flesh some twenty-four generations beforehand. In 1835 the Moriori population was devastated by the arrival of approximately 900 Māori. The Māori arrived severely weakened after a long journey and were nursed back to health by their Moriori hosts, only to subsequently slaughter and enslave the Moriori over the next thirty years. At the time of the 2013 census of New Zealand, 738 people described themselves as being of Moriori descent.
