Tommy Solomon

Tame Horomona Rehe, also known by the anglicised name Tommy Solomon, (May 7, 1884 - March 19, 1933) is believed by most to have been the last true Moriori (but see below).

Tommy was born at Waikaripi in the Chatham Islands and raised on the Moriori Reserve at Manukau. His mother died in 1903 but because of his youthful irresponsibility the interest in her land was vested in his father during his lifetime.

Tommy was married in 1903 to Ada Fowler of the Kāi Tahu "iwi" and began learning the trade of sheep farmer first on leased land and then on the family holding which gradually increased in size as the other Moriori people died off. When his father and his wife died in 1915 Tommy was running 7000 sheep and a herd of cattle on the family farm. Tommy remarried in 1916 to Whakarawa, the niece of his first wife and subsequently had five children.

As the Kāi Tahu are a South Island Māori tribe rather than Moriori, Tommy's children were considered of mixed descent. Modern scholars, however, reject the concept of a phylogenetically much distinct Moriori, and instead consider them a culturally highly specialized offshoot of some South Island Māori group - quite likely indeed the Kāi Tahu or close relatives of them, as evidenced by similarities between the Moriori language and the Kāi Tahu dialect.

During the 1920s Tommy became known as one of the most successful farmers in the Chatham Islands. He took an active part in the social and political life of the Chatham Islands and was widely respected for his generosity and his conciliatory nature; it was as the "last full-blooded Moriori" however that he was best known.

There are still many people of partial Moriori descent in the Chatham Islands and in New Zealand itself, and as indicated above, the Moriori are today generally considered a highly distinct "cultural" rather than racial entity (see the Moriori article for details).

Tame Horomona Rehe died of pneumonia and heart failure in 1933. Whati Tuuta, the son of his friend George Tuuta, built his coffin for the 22 stone figure. A statue was made to remember him in 1986; it can be found at Manukau close to his farm.

External links

* [http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Photos/Disc5/IMG0077.asp Photograph in Christchurch 1925]

References

*cite conference
last = King | first = Michael
title = Solomon, Tommy 1884 - 1933
booktitle = Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
date = 2006-04-07
url=http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=2S35
accessdate = 2007-03-27