In Dust Jacket sl faded on spine with NZ book awards sticker partly removed at front, First Edition 1989, Black and White Photographs, illustrations, maps, 226 Pages, top corners sl bruised, Published by Viking Auckland.
A Very Good Copy. SCARCE.
'The Moriori of the Chatham Islands have long been regarded by Europeans as one of the mystery peoples of the South Seas. Their culture seemed more primitive than any other in the Pacific; their origins were said variously to ne negroid, Jewish, Melanesean, Polynesian and Sub-Antarctic. The Maoris of new Zealand despised them and called them 'black fellas'. Victorian Europeans relegated them to the bottom of the evolutionary hierarchy of intelligent beings. The Moriori 'race', the world was informed, became extinct when its last member died in 1933. And he died, allegedly, without the solution to the mystery of his people's origin and identity. Hundreds of thousands of NZders still believe that the Moriori were a backward race of unknown origin who settled the country first and were subsequently banished to the Chathams, vanquished and demoralised by more vigorous and intelligent Maori colonists.
In this book historian Michael King clears away all the nonsense, rumour and vilification that have surrounded the Moriori. He idfentifies clearly who they were and where they came from. He shows that far from being 'primitive', Moriori culture was a perfect adaptation to a harsh environment. And he reveals that Moriori people were not a race, and that they are far from extinct. The book is a frascinating exercise in historical, archaeological and literary detective work. It restores the Moriori to their rightful place in NZ, Pacific and world history'