Inter tribal warfare part of history

Roger Childs, from Raumati Beach, reviews Unrestrained Slaughter: The Maori Musket Wars 1800 — 1840.

The Musket Wars from c.1800 — c.1840 is not a popular topic for many of our acclaimed historians such as Anne Salmond, Claudia Orange, Judith Binney and Vincent O’Malley. This period was characterised by unrelenting fighting between iwi, rape and pillage, the slaughter of prisoners, and widespread cannibalism, slavery, destitution and female infanticide.

Michael King in his History of New Zealand devotes nine pages to these horrific decades and concludes that “. . . if any period in New Zealand history has earned the label ‘holocaust’ it is this one”. The seminal work on the subject since 1999 has been Ron Crosby’s The Musket Wars. However, Waikanae-based historian John Robinson has now produced a shorter (130 pages) coverage of the period for both general and academic readers, which is highly informative, thoroughly researched and very readable.

It puts this brutal time in the context of the ongoing competition for land and resources which had been part of Ma¯ ori culture for 100 years or more. The arrival of the musket added to the armoury of the tribes and initially Hongi Hika and his Nga¯ puhi tribe had the advantage, especially after the legendary chief traded gifts from England for muskets in Sydney during the early 1820s.

It is estimated that there were over 600 battles in the four decades, before the Treaty of Waitangi brought the slaughter to a close. There is no dispute that there was a massive drop in the native population. Respected Ma¯ ori anthropologist and historian, Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck), postulated that about 80,000 died in the fighting and after the battles. Te Rauparaha’s son, Tamihana, and others who witnessed the carnage, testify to more people being killed after the battles than during them. Robinson’s conclusion is that there was a Ma¯ ori population loss of about 66,000 during the first four decades of the 19th century.

Why did the fighting go on for so long? Basically because of the tikanga of the time — “Time and again the relentless chain led from utu to deaths, calling for further utu and leading on to the next round of killing. This was war of territorial conquest and extermination”. Some smaller iwi were completely wiped out. The savagery was unrelenting, and treachery, torture, ambushes and betrayal were common. Women especially lived a life of constant fear, insecurity and exploitation, and for them the Treaty of Waitangi was a godsend. As a result of the Treaty, inter-tribal conflict, slavery, female infanticide and cannibalism were outlawed.

Unrestrained Slaughter covers all the major campaigns and taua (war party) expeditions and looks at the peace-making roles of missionaries. It explains how chiefs in Northland in particular — Hongi Hika, Tamati Waka Nene and his brother Patuone — began to appreciate that the internecine conflict was threatening to kill off the Ma¯ ori race. They wanted the British to step in and end the ruinous conflicts and answer their call — give us law. The Ka¯ piti Horowhenua area features prominently, as the present iwi — Nga¯ ti Toa, Nga¯ ti Raukawa and Te Atiawa — all came from the central North Island and sought refuge and security further south. However, later overcrowding, especially in the Ka¯ piti area, saw more conflict erupt.

Robinson’s book is essential reading for people wanting an objective coverage of the barbaric Musket Wars. This was a disastrous period of rangitiratanga, an important part of our history. Like the Thirty Years War, the Irish Potato Famine, the 20th Century slaughter of millions in the Soviet Union and China, the Holocaust, apartheid and other horrific periods of conflict and inhumanity, it must not be swept under the carpet of history. It should definitely feature in the school curriculum when the study of New Zealand history become compulsory.

Unrestrained Slaughter: The Maori Musket Wars 1800 — 1840 by John Robinson is published by Tross Publishing. It is available for $30 from Paper Plus and can also be bought online.