The first meeting - Abel Tasman and Māori in Golden Bay

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When the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman sailed into Golden Bay in 1642, a brief violent encounter with local Maori appears to have resulted from mutual cultural misunderstanding.

Abel Tasman in Golden Bay 

Abel Janszoon Tasman commanded a Dutch East India Company expedition to discover more about “South Land,” the great southern continent that included the already charted coastline of much of Australia.1 He left Batavia in 1642 with the ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen, making landfall at Mauritius and discovering and charting Van Diemen’s Land 2 before sighting Te Tai Poutini, the South Island’s West Coast. The ships travelled up the coast and around Onetahua  into Mohua (Golden Bay) on December 17, 1642.3

A view of the Murderers' BayGilsemans, Isaac: A view of the Murderers' Bay, as you are at anchor here in 15 fathom [1642], drawings and print collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, PUBL-0086-021
Click image to enlarge

The following morning boats were sent out to look for a better anchorage and a watering place. Smoke and fire glow were seen along the shoreline, alerting the Dutch to the presence of Ngati Tumata-kokiri, the bay’s dominant tribe,  which would have been assessing the threat posed by the strange pale men and their vessels. That evening the ships anchored somewhere off Wainui Inlet.4

Tasman’s journal records that four canoes paddled towards them and that there were calls between the vessels. A warrior “blew several times on an instrument…we then ordered our sailors…to play them some tunes in answer.” When the Dutch fired a cannon, the canoes fled and Tasman’s men kept a close guard overnight.5

It has been suggested that cultural misunderstanding was at the heart of this first contact between Māori and European. Māori may have challenged the ships because they believed the white people were patupaiarehe, fair-skinned fairy folk or ghosts, who were feared because they took women and children away. The shell trumpets may have been blown to scare them away.

Imagine the surprise when the ghosts apparently accepted their challenge.6

The next day a canoe returned, with its crew giving a “rough loud” call, probably a haka (war chant) resulting from the exchange of ritual challenges the previous evening. Tasman’s men, misunderstanding the chant’s intent, unsuccessfully tried to encourage them closer, waving linen and knives and calling out. The Māori eventually returned to land and Tasman decided to move the ships closer inshore, as “these people apparently sought our friendship”.7

Before this could be done, two canoes paddled out to the ships. While the Dutch crews continued encouraging the Māori to board, a small boat moved from the Heemskerck to the Zeehaen to warn its crew to be on guard and not to let too many aboard. On the boat’s return trip, a canoe rammed it and a warrior clubbed Cornelis Joppens on the neck with a long blunt pike, knocking him overboard. Four sailors were killed and the body of one was dragged into a canoe. Both canoes sped back to shore as the Dutch fired at them with muskets and guns. Cornelis Joppens and two other survivers swam back to the ships and the boat and bodies were retrieved.8

Copy of painted portrait of Abel Janszoon Tasman 
Copy of painted portrait of Abel Janszoon Tasman, Art Collection, The Nelson Provincial Museum, AC1229
Click image to enlarge

Tasman decided to leave Mohua immediately “since we could not hope to enter into friendly relations with these people, or to be able to get water or refreshments here.”9

As the ships sailed for Cook Strait, eleven canoes paddled towards them. A man standing in a large canoe held a small white flag, possibly a peace sign, but as they drew closer, Tasman’s men fired, hitting and felling him.10

Tasman named the bay Moordenaers (Murderers) Bay and recorded that the meeting “must teach us to consider the inhabitants of this country as enemies…”11

While Tasman had been warned of the possibility of attack, Maori had experienced a number of bewildering firsts – firearms, tall ships and white men. It would be more than 120 years before Māori and European next met, with the arrival Captain James Cook in 1769.12

2008

Written by:
  • Karen Stade
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Sources used in this story

  1. Salmond, A. (1991). Two worlds. Auckland, N.Z.: Viking/Penguin , p.71.

  2. Grahame Anderson (2001). The Merchant of the Zeehaen, Isaac Gilsemans and the voyages of Abel Tasman. Wellington: NZ., Te Papa Press.

  3. Mitchell, H. & J. (2004). Te ao ihu o te waka: a history of Maori of Nelson and Marlborough. Volume 1: te tangata me te whenua - the people and the land. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, p.142.

  4. Mitchell, p.142, 144, 146.

  5. Mitchell, pp.142-143 ; Salmond, pp.78-79.

  6. Mitchell, p.146.  

  7. Salmond, p.79,81. ; Mitchell, p.144.

  8. Salmond, pp.81-82.

  9. Mitchell, p.144.

  10. Salmond, pp.81-82.

  11. Mitchell, p.144.

  12. Jenkin, R. (2000). Strangers in Mohua: Abel Tasman’s exploration of New Zealand. Takaka, N.Z.: Golden Bay Museum, p.23. ; Salmond, p.82, 84,87

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  • this is cool

    Posted by bob, 05/09/2011 10:54am (5 months ago)

  • Im doing a unit standard on maori and pakeha and this really heled

    Posted by Lydia, 09/08/2011 10:37am (6 months ago)

Further sources - The first meeting - Abel Tasman and Māori in Golden Bay

Books

Articles

[Where no hyperlink is supplied ask at your local library about full text access to the articles.] 

  • Barber, I. (1992, Dec.). First contact in Golden Bay. New Zealand Historic Places, 39: p.49-51.
  • Basham, Laura (2000, 31 January). ‘Dutch “at peace with Māori”. ‘ Nelson Mail, p.3.
  • Clark, Karen (2000, 1 February ). Abel Tasman statue row ends in peaceful unveiling. Nelson Mail, p. 1
  • Collett, Geoff (2000, 27 January). Compromise means statue ceremony on. Nelson Mail, p.1.
  • Collett, Geoff (2001, 24 January). Second tribe backs protest over statue. Nelson Mail, p.1.
  • Courtney, David (1999, 13 November). Tasman welcomed back to Nelson. Nelson Mail, p.1. 
  • Dick, A. ( 2007, Aug./Sep.). The Abel Tasman. N.Z. today. 23: p.96-98,101.
  • Dutch group coming for statue unveiling (2000, 19 January). Nelson Mail, p.5. 
  • Glossary of coastal names, (1976, Aug.). Journal of the Nelson Historical Society. 3(2): p.22-27.
    http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-NHSJ03_02-t1-back-d1.html
  • Hilhorst, M. (1992, 17 Dec.). Park’s popularity brings problems, Press :p.13.
  • Hodge, R. (1998, Aug.). Early Birder: Perrine Moncrieff, a woman pioneer in conservation. Forest and Bird, 289: p.28-31.
  • Hunt, Tom (2008, 19 January). Statue reunited with sword. Nelson Mail, p.1.
  • Hutton, Catherine (2000, 2 February). Iwi disgusted by statue vandalism. Nelson Mail, p.3.

  • Mack, Rudiger. (2004). Did Dutch sailors land in Wainui Bay on 18 December 1642? Turnbull Library Record, 37,

    p. 13-28.
  • Mayor backs move to Golden Bay for statue (2008, 3 May). Nelson Mail, p.1.
  • Sculptor searches for Tasman’s image (1998, 24 November). Nelson Mail, p.2.
  • Sea views for statue’ (1998, 29 January). Nelson Mail, p.3.
  • Statue of Abel Tasman planned (1997, 22 December). Nelson Mail, p.6.
  • Sword won’t be replaced (2003, 11 December). Nelson Mail, p.3.
  • Tasman armed once more (2001, 6 April). Nelson Mail, p.3.
  • Tasman’s artist subject of book (2002, 4 February). Nelson Mail, p.1. 
  • Yarwood, V. (2005, Mar / Apr.). Abel Tasman: The search for Terra Australis Incognita and the discovery of Zeelandia Nova. New Zealand Geographic, 72: p.64-77.

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