The Racist Lie New Zealanders Taught Their Children

The genocide used to justify colonization

Moriori karāpuna (ancestors) at Manukau, Rēkohu (Chatham Island), in 1884. Photo from E-Tangata

Up until last week, I believed a lie taught for over 100 years to New Zealanders about our country’s historical origins. Even though historians tried to set the record straight as early as the 1920's, teachers, parents, and politicians continued to tell the same story: a story of the cannibalistic wiping out…