[8][9] The settlers' culture diverged from mainland Māori, and they developed a distinct Moriori language, mythology, artistic expression and way of life.

Later, a prominent pacifist culture emerged; this was known as the law of nunuku, based on the teachings of the 16th century Moriori leader Nunuku-whenua.

In February 2020, the New Zealand government signed a treaty with tribal leaders, giving them rights enshrined in law and the Moriori people at large an apology for the past actions of Māori and European settlers.

Further educated guesswork points to that arrival being a trading (not war) canoe or canoes (women must have been on board) from the far south that was blown off course while travelling northwards: it could have been taken eastward along the existing ocean current to the Chathams,[22] with archaeological discoveries implying they settled first on Pitt Island before later moving to Chatham Island.

[23][page needed] The Chathams are colder and less hospitable than the land the original settlers left behind, and although abundant in resources, these were different from those available where they had come from.

[27] This lifestyle is confirmed by early European accounts, with one recording that: "They were idle in the extreme, only seeking food when pressed by hunger, and depending mostly on what was cast ashore by the sea, a stranded whale, grampus, or porpoise being an especial delicacy, as was also a seal or mass of whale blubber, which being often cast ashore was looked upon as the gift of a good spirit who supplied their wants.

"[28]Lacking resources of cultural significance such as greenstone and plentiful timber, they found outlets for their ritual needs in the carving of dendroglyphs (incisions into tree trunks, called rakau momori).

[29] As a small and precarious population, Moriori embraced a pacifist culture that rigidly avoided warfare, replacing it with dispute resolution in the form of ritual fighting and conciliation.

...because men get angry and during such anger feel the will to strike, that so they may, but only with a rod the thickness of a thumb, and one stretch of the arms length, and thrash away, but that on an abrasion of the hide, or first sign of blood, all should consider honour satisfied.This enabled the Moriori to preserve what limited resources they had in their harsh climate, avoiding waste through warfare.

[31] The first Europeans to make contact with the Moriori were the crew of HMS Chatham on 29 November 1791, while on its voyage to the northern Pacific from England, via Dusky Sound.

Seventy years later the Europeans would be recalled in Moriori oral tradition as containing the god of fire, given the pipes they were smoking and likely female from the clothes they were wearing.

A brief period of hostility was quickly calmed by the crew putting gifts on the end of Moriori spears, though attempts at trade were unsuccessful.

Both the diary of Broughton and local oral tradition record that both sides regretted the incident and to some extent blamed themselves for overreacting.

With the arrival of the second group "parties of warriors armed with muskets, clubs and tomahawks, led by their chiefs, walked through Moriori tribal territories and settlements without warning, permission or greeting.

[40] A Moriori survivor recalled: "[The Taranaki invaders] commenced to kill us like sheep.... [We] were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies.

In 1842 a small party of Māori and their Moriori slaves migrated to the subantarctic Auckland Islands, surviving for some 20 years on sealing and flax growing.

[46] The Moriori were free from slavery by the end of the 1860s which gave them opportunities for self determination, but their small population led to a gradual dilution of their culture.

[50][51] The Tribunal is charged with making recommendations on claims brought by Māori relating to actions or omissions of the Crown in the period since 1840 that breach the promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi.

This occurred against the backdrop of Māori, Moriori and Pākehā Chatham Islanders all competing for fishing rights, while working together to exclude international and mainland interests.

Therefore, it was believed that the result of the Tribunal's verdict on the ownership of the Chatham Islands may improve the Moriori ability to acquire some of the allotted fishing rights from the Sealords deal.

Under the terms of the legislation, the settlement package includes a formal Crown apology, the transfer of culturally and spiritually significant lands to Moriori as cultural redress, financial compensation of NZ$18 million, and shared redress such as the vesting of 50 percent of Te Whanga Lagoon.

[55][56] Today, despite the difficulties that the Moriori have faced, their culture is enjoying a renaissance, both in the Chatham Islands and New Zealand's mainland.

[59] Based on the writing of Percy Smith and Elsdon Best from the late 19th century, theories grew up that the Māori had displaced a more primitive pre-Māori population of Moriori (sometimes described as a small-statured, dark-skinned race of possible Melanesian origin) in mainland New Zealand – and that the Chatham Island Moriori were the last remnant of this earlier race.

[69][70] The hypothesis of a racially distinct pre-Māori Moriori people was criticised in the 20th century by a number of historians, anthropologists and ethnologists; among them anthropologist H. D. Skinner in 1923,[71] ethnologist Roger Duff in the 1940s,[72] historian and ethnographer Arthur Thomson in 1959,[73] as well as Michael King in Moriori: A People Rediscovered in 2000, James Belich in 2002,[74] and K. R. Howe in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

[72] The idea of Moriori arriving earlier and being vastly distinct from Māori was widely published in the early 20th century.

[75] Crucially, this story was also promoted in a series of three articles in the New Zealand School Journal of 1916,[12] and the 1934 A. W. Reed schoolbook The Coming of the Maori to Ao-tea-roa[12]—and therefore became familiar to generations of schoolchildren.

[76] However, at no point has this idea completely dominated the discussion, with the academic consensus slowly gaining more public awareness over the 20th century.

[77] The 2004 David Mitchell novel Cloud Atlas and its 2012 film adaption both featured the enslavement of Moriori by the Māori on the Chatham Islands in the mid-19th century.