Moriori consider Pitt Island (Rangihaute / Rangiaote / Rangiauria ) to be the location of the original settlement of Moriori. Archaeological and scientific evidence seems to support this and there are still today plenty of evidence of old occupation of the island. Moriori contend that they settled the islands at roughly the same time as the ancestors of today’s Maori were settling mainland New Zealand.

When Maori took the island back in 1835, those Moriori that were living there were either killed, eaten, or taken into slavery. There is one story of ‘survival against the odds’ with the tale of Kochi “King of Pitt Island”.*

*The story of Kochi features in a book and movie called Cloud Atlas, starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry

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