Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'God's own country, but the devil's own mess.' Prime Minister Richard (King Dick) Seddon, speaking on
the source of NZ's self-proclaimed nickname 'Godzone'.
There were also developments in cultural nationalism, beginning in the 1930s but really
flowering from the 1970s. Writers, artists and film-makers were by no means the only
people who 'came out' in that era.
THE MORIORI & THEIR MYTH
One of NZ's most persistent legends is that Maori found mainland NZ already occupied by a more peaceful and
racially distinct Melanesian people, known as the Moriori, whom they exterminated. This myth has been regu-
larly debunked by scholars since the 1920s, but somehow hangs on.
To complicate matters, there were real 'Moriori', and Maori did treat them badly. The real Moriori were the
people of the Chatham Islands, a windswept group about 900km east of the mainland. They were, however, fully
Polynesian, and descended from Maori - 'Moriori' was their version of the same word. Mainland Maori arrived
in the Chathams in 1835, as a spin-off of the Musket Wars, killing some Moriori and enslaving the rest. But they
did not exterminate them.
The mainland Moriori remain a myth.
