Moriori cave art vulnerable to vandalism, cattle and weather
Monday, 31 May 2021
On the rugged and remote Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) sits pieces of New Zealand's history, missing from textbooks and vulnerable to the elements, wandering stock and vandalism.
Moriori carved seals and seabirds into Te Ana-a-Nunuku, or Nunuku’s cave, as many as 400 years ago. But the site, which sits on private land, is not heritage listed. Officials, experts and Moriori people agree it should be protected, but little has been done.
“Moriori archaeology and heritage hasn't had the respect or attention accorded to it that it deserves,” said Associate Professor Ian Barber of the University of Otago’s archaeology programme.
The lack of action over decades speaks to the marginalisation of Moriori people in society, history and even archaeology, Barber said. But the neglect of Te Ana-a-Nunuku, named after Moriori leader Nunuku whose law of peace governed the island, tells a story on its own.
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Hokotehi Moriori Trust, cultural and science projects coordinator, Susan Thorpesaid Moriori have been asking for the site to be protected as far back as the 1970s.
Māui Solomon, chair of the trust and grandson of Tommy Solomon, wrote to officials asking for help in 1989 and more than two decades later, in 2012, a specialist rock art conservator travelled to the island in and noted the deterioration of the cave art. His report made recommendations to protect the site.
“We had every expectation that this work would be facilitated by [Heritage NZ] but despite regular emails, calls and meetings nothing was done,” Thorpe told the Stuff via email.
Barber said the myth of the Moriori persists today, and is partly to blame for the lack of action.
In the early 20th century, prominent ethnographers portrayed Moriori as an extinct group of people who were inferior to Māori. The Crown contributed to the dissemination of this myth through the publication of the School Journal in 1916 and 1946.
Moriori descendants have been working to rebuild their identity and culture and in 2020 the Crown apologised to Moriori as part of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill.
“The Chatham Islands are not in people’s minds. Moriori themselves have been overlooked, marginalised and misinterpreted,” he said.
“It is just extraordinary, even to this day there are still many people who don’t understand who Moriori are or who have strange ideas about Moriori.”
Moriori karāpuna (ancestors) arrived in Rēkohu, Rangihaute, and other nearby islands sometime between 1000 and 1400 Common Era, according to the bill.
In 1835, two iwi driven out of Taranaki by the New Zeland Land Wars sailed to the islands on British ships and invaded. Moriori made a conscious decision not to retaliate with violence, and about 300 Moriori were slaughtered while hundreds more were enslaved and later died. Some were killed by their captors and others died of ‘kongenge’ despair.
According to Moriori records, 1561 Moriori died between 1835 and 1863 when they were released from slavery, while many more succumbed to diseases introduced by Europeans and in 1862 only 101 remained.
But although Rēkohu and the surrounding islands were annexed to New Zealand in 1842 as the Chatham Islands, the Crown took no action before the late 1850s to alleviate the conditions of Moriori enslavement.
By 1870 Moriori were left landless after the Native Land Court awarded more than 97 per cent of the land to the recently arrived Māori and less than three per cent to Moriori.
Today, the unique site sits on private land. Māui Solomon built a protective platform and fenced off the site to keep stock away, but after 15 years erosion started taking a toll, collapsing the roof and some limestone face of the cave wall, Thorpe said. It could be up to 400 years old but certainly predates 1835, she added.
Remedial work was due in 2011, but the landowner forbade access after a threatening message was carved into the rockface, she said. Te Ana-a-Nunuku was vandalised when Te Ana-a-Moe (the cave of sleep or Moe’s bed) and ‘don’t change history for money or you’ll lose it’ were carved into its limestone walls.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (HNZPT) communications manager Anna Knox said the organisation was concerned about the site.
”We provided some preventative assistance in 2019 and acknowledge more work is needed to progress better protection,” she said.
“The key issue is around the private ownership of the land – the approach needs to be local. It’s also relevant that while HNZPT would like it to be, the cave is not currently listed on the New Zealand Heritage Pouhere Taonga Listing Rārangi Kōrero.”
But Thorpe said most South Island rock art was also on private land, but was still given the highest protection and maintained with Crown assistance.
“The site is technically protected through the Heritage NZ Act regardless of land ownership – but it has not translated into actual protection,” she said.
“Heritage New Zealand has the capacity to do this and clearly do so in New Zealand.”