In a frontier society full of colourful characters in early nineteenth century New Zealand, Jacky Marmon, more commonly known as Cannibal Jack, was more colourful than most. Jumping ship off the New Zealand coast, he first lived among Ngāpuhi at the Bay of Islands, where he acquired five wives and served his chief as a trader and white priest. Joining Hongi Hika's great Musket Wars campaigns against the Tamaki and Kaipara tribes, he claimed to have served as Hika's personal war tohunga. He survived to settle in the Hokianga from 1823 and was involved in Hone Heke's Flagstaff War of 1845. In this biography of a wonderfully curious character, the author of the bestselling Pākehā Māori traces Marmon's life and times, drawing on his own knowledge and research as well as on Marmon's own – not always reliable – personal accounts.

White female Captives, Sex & Racism On The Nineteenth Century New Zealand frontier

The capture of white women by Māori in the nineteenth century was often accompanied by high hysteria and moral outrage. Trevor Bentley tells these women's stories, including those of Charlotte Badger, Ann Morley, Caroline Perrett and Elizabeth Guard, exploring contemporary myths that all of these women were mistreated and held against their will. The white settler population was at once fascinated and appalled by these stories: what did the women have to do to survive, how did they live and, well, what about sex? The settlers were obsessed with the virtue of these women and in the retelling of their experiences most enjoyable aspects of living with Māori were suppressed. Bentley reveals that two of these women actually chose to remain in the Māori world.

The Extraordinary Story of the Europeans Who Lived as Māori in early New Zealand

This book describes one of the most extraordinary and fascinating stories in NZ history. In the early part of the last century several thousand runaway seamen and escaped convicts settled in Māori communities. Jacky Mamon, John Rutherford, Charlotte Badger and many others – this is their largely untold story. They were regarded as unsavoury renegades by the European settlers, but amongst Māori they were usually welcomed. Many Pākehā Māori took wives and were treated as Māori, others were treated as slaves. Some received the moko, the facial or body tattoo. Others became virtual white chiefs and fought in battle with their adopted tribe. A few even fought against European soldiers, advising their fellow fighters about European infantry and artillery tactics. In this, the first-ever book devoted solely to the Pākehā Māori, Trevor Bentley describes in fascinating detail how the strangers entered Māori communities, adapted to tribal life and played a significant role in the merging of the two cultures.

The forgotten story of New Zealand's White Slaves

Slavery in the popular imagination has always been associated with the enslavement of Africans, and with good reason. Slavery however, is universal and not something that only white people did to black people. Throughout history, slavery has been practiced in many different forms and Māori slavery readily fits definitions of slavery elsewhere in world. This book discusses Pākehā (European) vassals or demi-slaves. Its main focus is the Europeans who lived and sometimes died as slaves in tribal New Zealand between the 1790s and 1880s. It examines when, where, why and how Māori obtained these slaves and the types of Europeans seized. It explores the diverse slave roles performed by white slaves, their sale prices and the immediate and long term physical and psychological effects of their servitude. Using published histories by hapū and iwi historians and writings on customary law by Māori scholars, captivity narratives by returned Pākehā slaves, and contemporary accounts about white slaves in newspapers, journals, letters and logs historian Trevor Bentley paints a vivid picture of the interaction between Māori and Pākehā and life in the early days of the colony.

During the 1800s published stories about Europeans captured by 'savages' thrilled and horrified British, Continental and North American audiences. Hugely popular and known as captivity narratives, they entertained urban audiences and frightened those still living on the frontiers. This anthology contains 20 first hand captivity accounts written or dictated by 16 men and four women captured by iwi throughout New Zealand between 1816 and 1884. Some were seized when they unknowingly transgressed tikanga Maori (the customary laws of tapu, utu, mana and muru). Others were seized when they or their countrymen were involved in committing blatant acts of aggression against Maori. Two of the women (Maria Bennett and Mary Jane Briggs) were captured when they were shipwrecked, as traditional Maori salvage law dictated that any craft  and those aboard it, wrecked or stranded in tribal waters, automatically became tribal property. The captives were held for weeks, months and in several cases for years before they were rescued or ransomed, for utu (redress) could be obtained by preserving life as well as taking it. Some escaped and others were freed by their captors. Of interest to Bay of Plenty readers will be the captivity of John Atkins (Whakatane, 1829), George Budd (Opotiki, 1834) and James Curlett (Tauranga, 1867).  A government surveyor seized at Paengaroa during the Tauranga Bush War of 1867, Curlett spent six months amongst Maori 'rebels' in the Kaimai Ranges before escaping and travelling to Cambridge. Packed with drama and action, the narratives create a vivid picture of Maori and Pakeha interactions during the 1800s. They also provide rich insights into Maori life, including the principles of captivity and utu, social order, religious practices, everyday customs and the conduct of warfare. Each narrative is followed by a brief essay providing historical and cultural context. This anthology makes an important contribution to understanding the cross-cultural tensions from which contemporary New Zealand society has emerged. Many anthologies containing first-hand accounts by Europeans captured by American Indians and North Africa's Barbary pirates have been published overseas. Transgressing Tikanga is New Zealand's first anthology of Maori captivity narratives.

The Story of Māori Artillery in 19th Century New Zealand

European sailing ships arriving in New Zealand waters during the early nineteenth century, brought with them terrifying and destructive gunpowder weapons that Māori soon termed pū repo (great guns). Sold to some 120 chiefs in the shape of muzzle loading cannon, carronades and swivel guns, 165 documented artillery pieces were acquired by the coastal and inland tribes. Set during the bloody intertribal Musket Wars (1818-1839) and the Anglo-Māori New Zealand Wars (1845-46 and 1860-1872), this book reveals a hitherto unknown dimension of this country's military history. It brings to light the various ways Māori acquired, mastered and deployed ships artillery, ceremonially in times of peace, and as instruments of destruction in offensive and defensive warfare. It resurrects or reconstructs long forgotten accounts of tribal artillery pieces, artillerymen and artillery battles, whose details were known throughout old tribal New Zealand. The history of New Zealand artillery and artillerymen begins with the tribal gunners. The book describes their professional approach to gunnery and the impact of artillery on military tactics during the Musket Wars. It shows how artillery became the catalyst for a new type of amphibious campaign and contributed to the evolution of gunfighter pa designed to deliver and resist musket and artillery fire. Drawing on contemporary accounts by European visitors and settlers, and the Māori and Pākehā-Māori artillerymen themselves, this book combines modern scholarship with old tales of unbridled ambition, innovation, adventure, courage, and tragedy, to provide an engaging and full history of New Zealand's tribal guns and gunners. Events of the past leave various records and 24 of the original 165 tribal guns can still be seen on marae, within nearby urupa (graveyards), public parks and museums. Photographs of many of these guns and the chiefs who owned and fired them are included here to enhance their stories.