Nunuku-whenua

Nunuku-whenua was a Moriori chief who is known for being a sixteenth-century pacifist.

The Moriori, a Polynesian people, migrated to the then-uninhabited Chatham Islands from mainland New Zealand around the year 1500. Following a bloody conflict between the Rauru and Wheteina tribes, Nunuku-whenua, a prominent Moriori chief of the Hamata tribe, established "Nunuku's Law", which forbade war, cannibalism and murder.

Moriori obeyed Nunuku's Law strictly, and maintained peace in the Chathams until 1835, when about 900 Māori from two North Island iwi, the Ngāti Mutunga and the Ngāti Tama, arrived in the Chathams. The invaders had guns and massacred the Moriori, who gathered urgently for a council at Te Awapātiki. Although youths argued in favour of armed resistance, elders ruled that Nunuku's Law could not be violated for any reason. The Moriori population, conquered and enslaved, fell from over 1600 in 1835 to less than 100 within thirty years.

Nunuku-Whenua was one of New Zealand’s earliest known artists. He carved birds and seals on the walls of a limestone cave that still exist today. The actual site is known as Te Ana a Nunuku.