Quote Originally Posted by ENT View Post
Quote Originally Posted by AntRobertson View Post
Just Google "Moriori myth"; "Moriori+myth" or similar.
I did, and came up with;

Moriori myth corrected

Generations of New Zealanders have grown up believing Moriori were an inferior, pre-Maori race driven from New Zealand to seek refuge in the Chatham Islands.

In his 1989 book Moriori: A people rediscovered, the late historian Michael King said that four generations of New Zealanders were taught to malign Moriori.

"Nobody in New Zealand – and few elsewhere in the world – has been subjected to group slander as intense and as damaging as that heaped upon the Moriori," he wrote.

The mythological history was perpetuated by the School Journal, a magazine-style series used in all New Zealand primary schools.

King said the journal's account was wrong, but for 60-odd years it was lodged in the national imagination.

That wrong was righted last week when Education Minister Anne Tolley travelled to the Chatham Islands to present a new series of School Journals that give a true account of the Moriori.

Marae elders, parents, students and officials gathered at Kopinga Marae for the presentation of the journals. In the centre of the room is a wooden pou or pole inscribed with the names of 1561 Maoriori living on the islands in 1835.

Tolley called the textbooks a "gift of peace" between the Ministry of Education and the Chatham Islanders.

The journals feature stories, pictures and illustrations about Moriori and carry a preface explaining who Moriori are and why the journals are dedicated to them.

Hokotehi Moriori Trust general manager Maui Solomon said the presentation was "a dream come true". In 1986, Solomon, the grandson of Moriori leader Tommy Solomon, told officials until Moriori was taught in schools the untruths and misconceptions would continue.

In the 2006 New Zealand census, 945 people said they were of Moriori descent.

Moriori myth corrected | Stuff.co.nz

When I left school, I worked with a bloke (Old fella) that new Tommy Solomon. He was the last full blooded Moriori.