The Genocide of Moriori
The Moriori genocide happened on the Chatham Islands of New Zealand. The Moriori people lived by a code of no violence, war fare, and cannibalism. This was known as the law of nunuku.The genocide had occurred in the fall of 1835. Moriori had a small population of only 2000 people. In the beginning, the Moriori had also been cannibals but had started to abide the non violent ways of the nunuku code. The last full blooded Moriori had died in 1933. A statue was created in 1986 for him. It can be found in Manukau. In 1835 a European ship had arrived on the Chatham island with around five-hundred Maori who were armed with guns, axes, and clubs. About a month later, another ship had arrived with about 400 more Maori. Moriori people were killed off, enslaved, and were used for cannibal practice. Maori had invaded camps without warning and with ease. Moriori's land was now Maori land. Maori were known to invade lands and kill off people and because of the closeness and the peacefulness of the Moriori, the Maori had decided to take over. There were no specific reason as to why this specific genocide happened. Those who survived the invasion were kept as slaves or eaten. Moriori were not allowed to marry one another nor have children with in their race. Many Moriori had died of despair and many of the women had ended up having children with the Maori and eventually ended up marrying the Europeans and Maori people. By 1863, only one 101 Moriori out of 2,000 had survived. The Moriori people were freed in 1963. The genocide of the Moriori was not something that people were not well informed of. There wasn't many well written facts on this genocide.
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