Muskets, disease and Nunuku's Covenant

Contact brought useful new things, but two of the biggest changes were deadly: muskets and disease.

The Musket Wars

From about 1818 to the late 1830s, iwi fought a series of wars now called the Musket Wars. Old conflicts and the need for utu met a new weapon. Iwi who had muskets could defeat iwi who did not, so every iwi rushed to get them, trading huge amounts of flax, pigs and potatoes. Potatoes also fed war parties on long journeys.

Disease

Visitors also brought illnesses Māori had never met, such as influenza, measles and whooping cough. With no immunity, many people died. Because few records were kept, historians find it hard to know exact numbers.

Rēkohu and Nunuku's Covenant

Moriori developed their own way of life on Rēkohu, the Chatham Islands. Generations before contact, their ancestor Nunuku-whenua set down a law: there would be no more killing. Disputes could be fought only until first blood was drawn, and then they had to stop. This became known as Nunuku's Covenant.

In 1835 two iwi from Taranaki, Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, who had been pushed from their lands by the Musket Wars, arrived on a sailing ship. Moriori held a large hui. Although some young men wanted to fight, they chose to keep their covenant of peace. Many Moriori were killed or enslaved, and their numbers fell sharply.

Moriori survived. Today they have their own marae, Kōpinga, opened in 2005, and in 2021 Parliament passed a Treaty settlement with Moriori. They are telling their own history, and it is theirs to tell.