On a recent field trip to Rēkohu, I had anticipated seeing flora and fauna found only in these remote islands, but I had underestimated its rich history and vibrant cultural landscape until I stepped onto the Kōpinga Marae.

On a wall adorned with Moriori carvings and pictures of karāpuna (ancestors) is a framed document – an apology.

Signed by Andrew Little, former minister for Treaty of Waitangi negotiations, it acknowledges how “historical Crown actions or omissions caused prejudice to Moriori and breached the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles”.

Dated February 14 2020, the apology details the Crown’s failure to protect Moriori, release them from enslavement and address the dispossession of their land. It references the Colonial Museum’s removal of, and trade in, kōimi t’chakat Moriori (human remains).

The Crown also apologised for its role in propagating the false history that Moriori were extinct and had been a racially inferior people – and for the violence and enslavement that caused the loss of language:

By the beginning of the twentieth century ta rē Moriori (the Moriori language) as a living language had been lost to Moriori and Aotearoa New Zealand. For its failure to actively protect this miheke (taonga), the Crown apologises sincerely.

By the beginning of the twentieth century ta rē Moriori (the Moriori language) as a living language had been lost to Moriori and Aotearoa New Zealand. For its failure to actively protect this miheke (taonga), the Crown apologises sincerely.

Rēkohu – the Chatham........

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