Shadow,
I looked it up. The following is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriori :

The Moriori are the native Polynesian people of the Chatham Islands (Rakohu in Moriori; Wharekauri in Maori), New Zealand. Moriori originated from Maori settlers from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 CE.[2] This was near the time of the shift from the archaic to classic Maori culture on the main islands of New Zealand.[3][4] Oral tradition records multiple waves of migration to the Chatham Islands, starting in the 16th century.[5][6] Over several centuries these settlers' culture diverged from mainland Maori, developing a distinctive language (which started as a dialect but gradually became only partially intelligible with Maori), mythology, artistic expression and way of life.[7] Currently there are around 700 people who identify as Moriori, most of whom no longer live on the Chatham Islands.[8] During the late 19th century some prominent anthropologists mistakenly proposed that Moriori were pre-Ma;ori settlers of mainland New Zealand, and possibly Melanesian in origin.[9][10]

Early Moriori formed tribal groups based on eastern Polynesian social customs and organisation. Later, a prominent pacifist culture emerged; this was known as the law of nunuku, based on the teachings of the 16th century Moriori leader Nunuku-whenua.[11] This culture made it easier for Taranaki Ma;ori invaders to nearly exterminate them in the 1830s during the Musket Wars. This was the Moriori genocide, in which the Moriori were either murdered or enslaved by members of the Nga;ti Mutunga and Ngati Tama iwi,[12] killing or displacing nearly 95% of the Moriori population.

The Moriori, however, were not extinct, and gained aroha and recognition as New Zealand's second indigenous people over the course of the next century, even if what happened to them was taught sparingly due to government suppression of knowledge of the genocide.

Hi Aiden,

SM had no knowledge of the Moriori until I enlightened him after he made a claim that there were "people" in NZ before the arrival of the first Polynesians, he couldn't name them. My wife studied Maori history for two years in Auckland, and taught Te Reo (Maori language) for several years at night. As she tells me, there is no evidence that the Moriori ever settled the main islands, but did occupy the Chatham Islands about 800km from the South Island. Shamefully both Maori and European committed genocide against the Moriori on the Chatham Islands, the last episode taking place in the 1930's, with the last full blooded Moriori passing in 1937 or 38. Testing of part decedents show Moriori were also of Polynesian ancestry.