Māori and Moriori settlement-history controversy

Record summary

Moriori history was distorted by a colonial narrative that portrayed Moriori as a vanished, racially distinct people conquered by Māori, despite Moriori being Polynesian inhabitants with continuing descendants and their own historical traditions. Archaeology, oral history, linguistics, and archival research instead document complex settlement, adaptation, conflict, enslavement, and colonial disruption. The lead matters for comparing oral tradition with later written historiography and for identifying how pseudoarchaeological racial claims can enter popular history. Specific demographic and chronological claims require careful source criticism.