Knowra Moriori genocide Moriori genocide The mass killing and enslavement of Moriori by invading Māori groups on the Chatham Islands, beginning in 1835. It devastated Moriori communities and subjected survivors to generations of enslavement.
Chatham Islands : A remote archipelago east of New Zealand, known to Moriori as Rēkohu. Moriori lived on these islands, where the 1835 invasion and killings took place.
Moriori nonviolence : A tradition associated with Moriori prohibitions on killing and warfare, commonly linked to the teachings of Nunuku-whenua. Moriori leaders invoked this tradition when deciding not to resist the invasion with violence.
Abolition of slavery in New Zealand : The nineteenth-century legal and political process that ended slavery in New Zealand. Ending slavery under British authority did not immediately restore Moriori land or autonomy.
William R. Broughton : A British naval officer who visited the Chatham Islands in 1791 aboard HMS Chatham. His account records Moriori society before the 1835 invasion.
Genocide : The intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The term frames questions about how the invasion and mass killing should be legally and historically classified.
Moriori : The Indigenous Polynesian people of the Chatham Islands, with a distinct language and history. Their communities were targeted, enslaved, and disrupted by the invading groups.
Nunuku-whenua : A Moriori ancestor remembered for teaching a prohibition on killing and warfare. His teachings informed the decision that shaped Moriori responses to the attackers.
Moriori land claims : Moriori efforts to secure recognition of customary ownership and obtain redress for dispossession. Claims addressed the loss of land that followed invasion and enslavement.
HMS Chatham : A British survey ship that visited the Chatham Islands in 1791 under William R. Broughton. The ship's visit produced an early European record of the islands and their inhabitants.
Genocide Convention : The 1948 United Nations treaty defining genocide and requiring its prevention and punishment. Its legal definition raises questions about applying a later treaty to nineteenth-century events.
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