Outcasts of the Gods? The Struggle Over Slavery in Maori New Zealand

‘Us Maoris used to practice slavery just like them poor Negroes had to endure in America . . .’ says Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors. ‘Oh those evil colonials who destroyed Maori culture by ending slavery and cannibalism while increasing the life expectancy,’ wrote one sarcastic blogger. So was Maori slavery ‘just like’ the experience of Africans in the Americas and were British missionaries or colonial administrators responsible for ending the practice? What was the nature of freedom and unfreedom in Maori society and how did that intersect with the perceptions of British colonists and the anti-slavery movement? A meticulously researched book, Outcasts of the Gods? looks closely at a huge variety of evidence to answer these questions, analyzing bondage and freedom in traditional Maori society; the role of economics and mana in shaping captivity; and how the arrival of colonists and new trade opportunities transformed Maori society and the place of captives within it.

Hazel Petrie has an MA in History and PhD in Maori Studies from the University of Auckland. She has contributed chapters to numerous books on history, ecology and religion, both in New Zealand and overseas, and has also written or delivered academic papers on related topics. Petrie is the author of Chiefs of Industry: Maori Tribal Enterprise in Early Colonial New Zealand which was shortlisted for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards in 2007. She won a CLNZ Writers’ Award for her work on this book.