Kererū History Books New Zealand

While people are aware of the atrocities of the black slave trade, few are aware of the enslavement and trafficking of Europeans in 19th-century New Zealand. Hierarchical and assertive Māori tribal societies considered all Pākehā (non-Māori, mainly Europeans) living within their power and under their protection as chattel slaves (personal property) or demi-slaves (tributary vassals). For Māori, the sailors, convicts, missionaries, traders, whalers and sawyers who were captured or welcomed were viewed as the property of their rangatira (chiefs) and existed primarily to serve their masters.

Tauranga’s seas and harbour waters are central in any historical account of its past. This book charts the early evolution of Tauranga’s identity as a desirable living place, a port and centre of trade and shipping, and the region as a source of profitable and sustainable, export commodities. It casts light on the fluid, shifting oceanic world of Tauranga Moana, initially inhabited by Polynesian migrants, and for hundreds of years by resident Māori iwi and hapū who plied its waters on a variety of waka. It identifies and describes visiting European explorers, whaling-musket trading ships, pirates of both races, sea-trader adventurers, fugitive convicts and sailors, shipwreck survivors, and bold sea captains from, and beyond the region.

This book recounts in vivid style the ‘shipping out’ of Māori adventurers across the seas and oceans of the world aboard Euro-American whaleships. It investigates the reputation of Māori as the most courageous and dependable of all the indigenous Pacific seamen engaged in whaling—a notoriously brutal and bloody exploitative industry. It discusses their diverse work roles on foreign windjammers, their exploitation by avaricious shipowners and captains, and the maritime customs, lingos, diet, dress, and superstitions they adopted.