New Zealand History - The Truth 11

European Patu-paiarehe people

The smashed bones of the unfortunate victims of a cannibal feast. This was the tragic fate of many of the European Patu-paiarehe people, who were relentlessly hunted as a food source.

MORE RECENT SKELETAL DISCOVERIES OF TARANAKI'S PRE-MAORI INHABITANTS.

Here's an excerpt from a 2005 newspaper article:

Old Maori skeletons get new home

24 September 2005
By RICHARD WOOD

The remains of 12 skeletons in a formal pre-European Maori urupa (cemetery) unearthed by contractors on a Manutahi farm, have been removed and re-interred at Manutahi Marae by kaumatua of the Ngati Pakakohe iwi.


No official comment could be obtained from Pakakohe, but tribal members told the Taranaki Daily News the blessing and reinterrment happened on Tuesday.

These sources were not comfortable with the removal of the bones.

They said the remains should possibly have been left where they were found.

The principal South Taranaki iwi, Ngati Ruanui, was originally called in by the police after the remains were disturbed during land contouring earthworks for oil exploration company Swift Energy NZ Ltd, on September 13.

Ngati Ruanui chairman Syd Kahu, asked for an update this week, said: "I have handed it all over to Pakakohe, that's all I have to say."

Allan Cunningham, the new Swift CEO said nothing further was being done at the site "until Ngati Ruanui decide to allow it. They may do as they see fit, that's our position. There has been a limited amount of fill work done where the remains were found."

Michael Taylor, a private archaeologist from Archaeology North, Wanganui, was called in by the NZ Historic Places Trust to assess the discovery but did no excavation.

He said the urupa "definitely pre-dates European settlement due to the style of burial, state of the bones and the presence of what may have been woven flax. Something like this is a significant discovery because it is an unrecorded formal burial site. I've been in archaeology for over 20 years and this is the first time I have seen anything like this."

Since the find, a bit more evidence has filtered through from private sources. This tells us:

The bones of each skeleton unearthed were in woven bags, but the material was not flax.
The burial site was a formally organised location, totally unknown to the local iwi by their own admission. It's evident that they had no history of burials at this location and in this unique manner. The remains were of an earlier, ancient people, who had no affiliation with the local iwi now occupying the region.
The final burial had occurred in swamp or bog land. From descriptions given one assumes the bodies of the deceased had first been laid out in the open and allowed to decompose until the flesh was gone (perhaps over a year or so). The clean bones were then, it seems, stacked into woven bags of an unidentified material and placed into the swamp cemetery. This practice appears to be somewhat similar to how ancient, pre-Maori New Zealanders laid out their newly dead, then after a given time, took and stacked the clean skeletal remains in well organised burial caves.
Burying the dead in watery graves, such as swamps or bogs was sometimes practiced by ancient Europeans. Generally, however, they undertook full body burials of the newly dead in the bogs.
No photography of the skeletal remains recovered at the Manutahu farm was permitted.
No forensic analysis to determine the physical anthropology or ethnicity of the skeletal remains was permitted, although in the majority of cases the remains were removed intact within the woven bags and all physical materials were in a high state of preservation. These were perfect specimens for profound scientific analysis.
The remains, which were undoubtedly pre-Maori or of ancient Patu-paiarehe-E uropean ethnicity have, as per usual, been whisked away and destroyed, this time at Manutahi PA located between Hawera and Patea. This "Dark Ages" practice of suppressing scientific investigation ensures that we never learn the truth about our long-term history. Moreover, the progeny of those who annihilated the earlier inhabitants of New Zealand are aided and abetted in keeping knowledge concerning the earliest New Zealanders a deep, dark secret.

Europeans have a right to be consulted regarding the fate of the remains of their ancient cousin peoples. This is yet another breach of, what should be, mutual respect for ethnic rights.