The Maori Wars

Let me tell you about how it was before the white people came. I was just sitting at my table at home when the news came; no one was expecting it on that day. It had been a normal happy day; the people in my tribe had their customs and ranks.

That morning there had been a meeting with the Elders and Leaders, but I didn’t know what that was about. I never did. They told me I was too young to understand the important matters they spoke of, but I disagreed. A thirteen year old not being able to understand things? I’ve always had a broad understanding of the plants and animals and telling the weather, so why not this?

Everyone knew their jobs and positions in our tribe and usually other tribes as well, it was a happy community and everyone knew each other. The expectations where clear, even those who could not see, could still understand.

The men went hunting in the morning and came back in the afternoon while the women cooked and cared for the children. The fighters and warriors trained and lots of killings and fights of revenge happened. Even though our tribe was considered one of the more peaceful tribes we still had many deadly fights with other tribes.

There were lots of jobs everyone had to do, the women where very important in our tribe, they where practically considered sacred. Although they could not fight in war they would provide the tribes with generations to come. They also did other important things like starting opening calls, which the men could not do. The women were also in charge of cooking and looking after the children as well as songs and dances.

The men didn’t do as much as the women did, but it still looked like harder work. They went out almost everyday to hunt for food that the women would cook. We usually lived on a diet of different fish, mammals, plants and roots. The important men also had meeting in which to discuss plans. Other men would give tattoos to men and women, the more tattoos someone had the more important they where. Some men even had to practice fighting and go fight other men.

The Elders and fishers saw it before anyone else did. The big white sails, we hadn’t seen anything like it before. The little children said it was a huge bird, or a sign for something. But it looked too much like big amounts of silk or cloth.

From far away it looked as if animals were climbing up the poles and moving around on it, but as it got closer we could see they were humans. They looked kind of like us only very pale and covering themselves up with lots of cloth. Some of the strangers wore the same clothes so we agreed they were of the same rank, but everyone else wore random bits and pieces. We found out later that it was a huge boat that had sailed up, but that was unknown then.

The thing sailed close to shore but didn’t go all the way. Instead it sent out a canoe kind of like the ones the fishers had, only slightly different. Inside it was two of the pale people with the big pieces of cloth. The fishermen sent for the Elders and a hunting party with weapons that quickly arrived. Although all the hunters where ready to attack, the Elders believed it might be sacred and thought it best to wait.

The man inside the weird canoe used to paddles and came and sail over. As he was doing that, others also got in the small boats and paddled over. The Elders and hunters looked worried, I could even see that from far away at my house.

I saw it all, a pale man went even paler as he looked at them, and then he pulled out a long stick and put it to a hunter’s chest. It all happened so quickly, there was a loud bang and blood over his chest. I didn’t know him personally but I knew he was one of our best hunters and fighters. That stranger made a big mistake because the peace we tried making was definitely broken.

I didn’t see what happened next but from other peoples stories it didn’t sound good. The tribe swiftly attacked them and a big fight broke out. They fought for a while but our tribe was to strong for them and only some of the people that left the boat were alive. Most of who were left out of the boat still alive quickly got executed. The few people left went back inside the big boat and told the rest what had happened.

The next day the men came back from the boat and rowed over here. We were a lot more prepared this time. But not enough as it seemed, we lost more fighters in the tribe than we did last, I suppose they were better prepared as well. It was a very sad time we went through, losing many people for unnecessary reasons.

I got called to go with other children and warn all the tribes near us. I ran as fast as I could with the other people from village to village. We told them to send their best hunters and fighters. I saw men with big weapons running in the opposite direction and charging in to fight. We over powered them easily but still lost lots of men. When the fighters returned they had slaughtered the Europeans. It was sad to kill but they didn’t understand our customs. At least that was the end of it.

Ten Years Later:

Finally a treaty was signed but that wasn’t all good. I guess the peace between the British and us was great but we lost all our culture. The British took over with their law and enforced their customs, which was good for the British but not us.

They seemed happy and most of us didn’t mind too much. The Elders and Chefs were a bit in between; happy of peace, yet unhappy of sharing everything with Europeans when they did nothing for us. This was only realised later from the mistranslation.

Soon after that, the British came to live with us, including missionaries. They lived amongst us and we traded heavily, meaning new weapons and items. They ended up completely colonizing us! More and more British people moved to New Zealand and began farming on new land. We have been mixed ever since. I am Narui and this is my story.