Maoris and Celts

     Michael Bassett dismisses a Celtic myth. He says:
     "I looked again at the email from Sassoon and see that the suggestion about the Celts relates not just to the Chathams but to all New Zealand !! The Maori, who had no written language when the first European settlers arrived, had developed a fine art of what they call "whakapapa". They cite the generations back - who was descended from whom, and who triumphed over whom. They are not backward in admitting to a bit of cannibalism, nor to blood-thirsty victories. Some can whakapapa back for a great many generations. Had there been a group of fair-skinned Celts that they had done in, there is not the slightest doubt it would feature most prominently in their stories. Had any government tried to prevent this information being part of the whakapapa, they would have run into great trouble. Undoubtedly such action by a government would long ago have been deemed contrary to the Treaty of Waitangi 1840 under which settlement of Europeans took place. To the best of my knowledge there has never been mention of Celts in any whakapapa, nor is there any archaeological evidence to support the claim about Celts. Plenty of Scots came later, including a few of my own ancestors. One of them, Peter Fraser, whose biography I have just completed, was Prime Minister (1940-1949) and hailed, originally, from Ross-shire. He could speak Gaelic. He took a close interest in things Scottish, and promoted research into the backgrounds of the groups of Scottish settlers in New Zealand. No evidence of a Celtic presence pre-Maori (they are thought to have come to New Zealand in the ninth century AD - carbon dating supports this) has ever been discovered."

Ronald Hilton - 1/2/00