THE HEAD TRADE

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 5

THE HEAD TRADE

(By

WINIFRED OWEN)

The Captain Cook bicentenary celebrations held earlier this year recall the unusual trade described by Major General Robley in his book “Moko; or Maori Tattooing,” published in 1896.

At the first arrival in 1770, Joseph Banks (later Sir Joseph Banks, the noted naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook) bought a dried head on January 20, from a Maori visitor on board the Endeavour. It was the first dried head decorated in moko ever possessed by a European. This set the pattern for the gruesome trade that followed.

The preserving of heads by the Maori was an acknowledgement of the high class of the owner. It was especially reserved for persons of nobility, sometimes of wives and children or even an honourable enemy slain ,in battle. Moko was an important part of the warlike preparations and many young warriors were able to endure the pain of tattooing by the thought of their handsome and warlike appearance if and when their heads came to be preserved.

Main Purpose The main object of preserving was to keep alive the memory of the dead and with the death of a chief it was visible sign that his spirit still dwelt amongst them.

Those of friends and relatives were hidden and protected by the strictest tapu. The heads of foes were often placed on the tops of houses or poles by the wayside where they were treated to contemptuous taunts of the passers-by. When Joseph Banks returned to England with his souvenir a great demand sprang up from museums and collectors of bizarre trophies. At first the Maori was reluctant to sell but this soon disappeared when it was found that muskets could be bought to continue tribal wars.

Up to 1818 the Maori population was large and chiefs were not slow in taking advantage of the trade by collecting the heads of their

enemy dead. The least valuable of their slaves were also victims. Their faces were forcibly tattooed and then they were killed off. Many a good-looking slave was elaborately tattooed and sold as a distinguished rangatira. Some slaves who became valuable with the scrolls and curved moko on their faces, escaped and lived in fear of recapture and death.

Gruesome Outcome Old quarrels were remembered and small local wars were waged to keep up the supply. Now no man who was well tattooed was safe unless he was a great chief and well surrounded by his warriors. Skippers of traders and whaling vessels arranged “goods” and trade began to increase to such a degree that agents were sent from Sydney to select the best specimens and dried heads were allotted a separate entry among the imports of Sydney customs. Many Maoris stopped preserving heads of friends and relatives in case they fell into the hands of unscrupulous traders.

The trade grew to such an extent that the quality of the “goods” deteriorated and dealers became dissatisfied. The next step became even more grusome.

When traders arrived, they were visited on board by chiefs with a following of slaves to be exhibited. A head was chosen and the unhappy slave was doomed, the chief promising to have the “goods” available on the trader’s next visit. By now museums and collectors were well stocked and the demand was falling off but it was not until 1831 that this terrible traffic in human heads was abolished by law.