A time of change

In the years before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, relations between Māori and Pākehā were based on the Māori people’s complete authority over their own tribal areas. The much smaller numbers of non-Māori could only survive by accepting this authority and finding ways to share the country’s resources.

In 1830 there were probably no more than 300 Pākehā living in New Zealand, among up to 100,000 Māori. A number of ‘Pākehā–Māori’ (Europeans living as part of a Māori community) operated as traders, but many Māori communities, especially in inland areas, had little or no contact with Pākehā. The most significant and lasting contacts between Māori and non-Māori in this period came through the whaling industry.

Interactions between early whalers (and those who came with them) and local Māori varied widely, but irrevocably altered Māori society. There was trade in things like food, cloth, weapons, and tools. Land was traded (though many of these deals proved contentious), and as we’ve seen, many Māori joined the whaling ships as valued crewmates. Especially early on, there were instances of extreme violence but also the opposite – strong trading connections and marriage unions that would tie the two groups together into lineages that remain today.

Missionaries

In the early 19th century government officials in New South Wales and London, and British missionary societies, were concerned that Europeans visiting New Zealand introduced Māori to prostitution, alcohol, muskets and disease. With the aim of protecting Māori from the worst effects of European colonisation, they decided to set up Christian missions in New Zealand. Māori whalers were among their earliest converts.

The Northland chief Ruatara had travelled to London on board a whaling ship and met the missionary Samuel Marsden. As a result, Marsden based his first mission at Ruatara’s community in the Bay of Islands. A later mission was based at Paihia, directly opposite the whaling port of Kororāreka. The contrast between the peaceful and devout mission station and the violent and drunken township led the two communities to be known as Heaven and Hell.

^{Depiction of the sermon by Samuel Marsden, 1814. Archives Reference: AANS 8128 W5154 Box 74. Material from Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o Te Kāwanatanga. CC BY 2.0}

Trade and production

Māori in the European workforce

During the earliest period of contact with Europeans, the Māori workforce adapted but did not fundamentally change. Māori continued to work communally within their whānau (families), directed by kaumātua (elders), or in their hapū (sub-tribes) directed by rangatira (chiefs).

One of the earliest attempts to integrate Māori into the European workforce was a complete failure. In 1793 Northland chiefs Tuki Tahua and Ngāhuruhuru were kidnapped and taken on board a ship at the request of Lieutenant Governor Philip King of Norfolk Island.

King hoped he would be able to get them to demonstrate the techniques for manufacturing flax. However, the Norfolk Island flax was poor and the men, in any case, knew very little of flax techniques – Tuki Tahua was a tohunga (priest), while Ngāhuruhuru was a warrior.

Changing times

A Department of Conservation report, “Maori, whales and “whaling” an ongoing relationship” by M W Cawthorn observes that,

Through whaling, Maori were able to travel the oceans of the world and absorb a great range of skills which they brought back home. Above all, they learned English, the language of Pacific Whaling. In 1840 the French whaling surgeon Thiercelin said (Mortelier 1995):

There is not a Maori who does not know a few words of the (English) language and some speak and write it fluently.

Some European whalers had learned Maori, and whalers of both races were able to assist when settlement commenced. The advent of whaling in New Zealand altered Maori agricultural practices. They were able to quickly expand their production to provide for the wants of the whaling fleets. In exchange they were able to acquire iron tools – and muskets and gunpowder. But agricultural production for trade had a far greater influence on Maori society and culture than guns.

Trading with Pākehā

As Māori sought European technology, including firearms for warfare, they adapted their economy to supply and trade goods required by Pākehā.

Kauri spars were required by visiting ships for repairs, and large amounts of dressed flax were exported to Australia. Flax collection and working had traditionally been done on a small scale for clothing, baskets and mats, but it now became a feat of mass production. All hands were required to get massive shipments ready on time. A tonne of processed flax might purchase a single musket.

^{Fenced potato plantations grow at the top right of this Māori pā, drawn around 1845 by Cyprian Bridge. Potato gardens quickly became a very common sight near Māori villages in the 19th century. This may have been Tāmati Wāka Nene’s pā at Ōkaihau in Northland. Bridge, Cyprian, 1807-1885. [Bridge, Cyprian], 1807-1885 :View of an ordinary New Zealand pa with potato plantations around it. [1845]. Ref: A-079-031. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22741593}

Potatoes were also traded with Pākehā – around 1814 one musket cost 150 baskets of potatoes. During the planting, care, and harvest of kūmara, restrictions due to tapu sometimes limited women’s involvement. But potatoes were generally grown without the same tapu aspects, so the entire process could be done without the participation of men, and in some areas women and slaves took over production.

In the next step we will look at a variety of ‘cultural go-betweens’; Pākehā whalers who made strong personal connections with the local iwi Māori.

Further reading

Cawthorn, M.W., 2000. Maori, whales and “whaling”: an ongoing relationship. Conservation Advisory Science Notes No. 308, Department of Conservation, Wellington.

Material for this step was sourced from:

• Basil Keane, ‘Te rāngai mahi – Māori in the workforce – European contact’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• Bradford Haami, ‘Te whānau puha – whales – From whaling to tourism’, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand