History 3.5 – Change Essay – CONTACTTERM 3 REVISION
Intro: The consequences of the Boyd incident in making NZ a place not to come to (1809) vs the “workable accord” (Orange)that developed afterwards due to demands by both sides of the equation.
- Whalers and Sealers
- Orange: they “had no other mission in NZ than to exploit the resources of land and sea and they did not actively seek to change Maori society”
- Sealers operated in south of SI Maori provided food and labour sometimes but no big contact
- Whalers had more interaction:
- Maori crewed whaling ships see the world
- Bay of Islands was the key port of call for whalers:
- Food, water, women, labour
- Kororareka: “hellhole of the Pacific”
- 1829: development of shore whaling stations meant more contact
- Traders: Many came from sealers / whalers / missionaries: key part of “workable accord” because they exemplify mutual demand
- Pakeha trading flax and timber well before 1840 and development of key industries
- Traders lived close to Maori society: seen as a very important part of a tribe if one present as they brought trade to the tribe: envy and cause for war for other tribes
- Belich: “pursuit of mana” Chiefs saying “my Pakeha”
- Traders a sign of power and prestige
- traders sometimes took Maori wives – extra bonding
- Missionaries: Orange asserts that out of all contact period people, they were the only ones that sought to “change Maori”
- Very few converts prior to 1830
- Post 1830 much more converts: several opinions
- Wright: disease and war pushed Maori to Christianity
- Owens: improved missionaries e.g. Henry Williams
- Binney: active choice to find a new life with less death and war + message of peace in the Bible
- Marsden claims that the message was well received as the “savages were more civilised than any others I has seen”
- Pakeha-Maori
- Traders often married for personal safety – i.e. protection of a tribe
- Mediation between the two groups + trade advantage
- Barnet Burns claims that he could go anywhere he wanted because he was tattooed
- Maori women who married Pakeha men seen as mana gaining for the tribe because they also had a trade advantage
- Children of such relationships raised as Maori
- Impact of muskets
- High demand: shown by 3 tons flax for one musket => more slaves used
- Chiefs wanted missionaries who could fix guns
- MUSKET WARS
- Hongi Hika went to Britain and returned with gifts, which he converted to muskets in Sydney
- 1824: Ngapuhi overran Ngati Whatua in revenge for previous attacks, using newly-gained muskets
- Impact (according to Crosby):
- Dislocation of tribes
- Elimination of some tribes
- European settlement on disputed land
- By the 1830s; Binney says a “balance of terror” had been achieved because all tribes sought to get muskets, and by 1830s impact of muskets decreased as muskets fully saturated
- Elizabeth Affair
- An evidence of Euro interference in Maori affairs: Te Rauparaha sneaking warriors south
- Br court in NSW claimed no jurisdiction
- Maori chiefs petitioned Br King to deal with Pakeha lawlessness: James Busby
- Man ‘o War w/o guns
- NSW governor would not furnish him with anything
- Depended upon his personality to deal with problems
- Contact was limited for most of NZ; Bay of Islands had significant contact hence Pakeha dress, food, tools, weapons etc. adopted widely. Other areas had only heard of rumours of Pakeha
- Pakeha saw this as Maori moving into civilisation
- Neg impact of contact: diseases due to lack of immunity: Belich – compare Native Americans etc.
- Christianity
- Increased literacy due to Bible education – Maori writing letters, petitions etc.
- Reduced savageness: less: cannibalism, slavery, tattooing, polygamy as un-Christian
- Papahurihia: symbiotic religion: adoption and changing of Pakeha concepts by Maori
- Maori = Tribes of Israel
- Sabbath on Saturdays
- “Missionaries brought ideas that were the real harbingers of change” – Belich – link to Declaration and Treaty
- Fatal Impact vs Acculturation
FATAL IMPACT (Wright)
- Social Darwinism
- Stronger race will eat up the weaker races via disease, alcohol, tobacco, Christianity and war
- A fatal collision of races means that the remnants of the race will be forced to become civilised
- Visitors coming in to see ‘the last of the Maori’
- Maori life changed as they grabbed what they wanted of Pakeha society
- Papahurihia
- Trade
- Muskets even
- Maori culture survived well because of this Co-existence today proves this
- Belich: “Maori Agency” Maori were the agents of change in society
- Flag and Declaration of Independence
- Achievement of Busby – one of very few
- Permits trade in Br ports
- Protection from Baron de Thierry
- Maori realised they were collective group – Maori unity contributed (question)
- Orange: “Acknowledgement of mana of NZ and special mark of Maori identity”
- A quest to build a Maori aristocracy – Busby thought too many Chiefs
- King: “no reality because no indigenous power structure”
- Moon: “goodwill agreement rather than national document of truly constitutional significance”
- However makes Treaty difficult as
- 1. Br recognises NZ independence
- 2. Br promised to be a parent of infant state
- Continual failure of Busy led to further and more formal involvement of Britain in NZ thru Treaty – to protect Maori, regulate land sales, controlling settlers, dealing with NZ Co.