Moriori history is being made more accessible to children in a new range of School Journals.
Education Minister Anne Tolley launched the eight new School Journal publications, which feature stories and illustrations about Moriori.
"For the first time Moriori have an authentic voice in the pages of the school journal," Mrs Tolley said at the presentation of the journals at Kopinga Marae on the Chatham Islands yesterday.
"Moriori were misrepresented in 20th century publications of the School Journal and this resulted in generations of New Zealanders having little understanding of the true origin and status of Moriori people.
"Through these publications, all New Zealand children will have the opportunity to learn about Moriori people, their culture and identity."
The Moriori are thought to have settled on the Chatham Islands about the same time Maori arrived in New Zealand.
In 1835, Maori tribes from Wellington claimed ownership of the Chathams - 800km east of Christchurch - in the process slaughtering or enslaving many Moriori, reducing the population to about 100 people by the 1870s.
By the middle of the 20th century it was wrongly believed they were extinct.
