November 29, 2021
Moriori post-settlement steps to revival
It’s Anniversary Day on the Chatham Islands, and for the first time in many years the indigenous people of Rēkohu and Rangihaute have something to celebrate.
Parliament last week passed the Moriori Claims Settlement Act, which will result in the transfer of culturally and spiritually significant lands to Moriori as cultural redress as well as financial redress of $18 million.
Negotiator Maui Solomon says the iwi has not waited for the settlement, and has built up an asset base worth about $70 million.
“We’ve got the hardware in place. We now need to develop the software and get that installed into our people, like the revival of re Moriori, our rongo, our waiata, our karakii and those sorts of things. You can’t really be a distinct people and culture without your language and your cultural customs and traditions so that to me is probably the biggest challenge that faces us,” he says.
Mr Solomon says Moriori were unsuccessful in their argument the settlement should not be constrained by the existing framework which includes an estimation of population size, as Moriori are still recovering from the near-genocide in the 19th century which the crown was in past responsible for.