The NZ Maoris

Like all mankind the Maoris have their own Myths and Legendary characters. I intend to introduce you to some of them.

The Maori Gods - Atua
	The Natural World and Human society were inseperable from the beginning because the sky, Rangi, is the first male and the earth, Papa, the first female. It follows that human males are like the sky and human females like the earth. Atua (the Maoris Gods) were the supernatural spirits which dominated pre-european New Zealanders. The supreme being was Io-matua-kore whose presence was revealed only to those Tohunga who had reached the highest levels of spirituality and learning. All tribes shared belief in eight major gods, offspring of the primeval parents: Rangi and Papa

	Rangi and Papa
	Rangi is the father of the eight major gods. He represents the sky and in Maori mythology is founding father of mankind. Rangi is heaven, the residence of the supreme being Io. Rangi and Papa (the earth, and mother of the eight gods and all kind) were husband and wife, locked in an embrace. Their sons tried to seperate them, and this was achieved by Tane, revealing the children of the sky and earth and giving them light. Rangi and Papa Rangi and Papa 2

	The Eight Gods are:
	Tanemahuta(Tane) God of forests and father of man. Also represents pristine man, and the general word for male or husband	Tumatauenga God of war and inventor of snares, nets and digging sticks	Rongo God of peace and agriculture	Tangaroa God of the sea
	Tawhiri The weather god	Haumia God of uncultivated food	Ruaumoko The earthquake god	Whiro God of darkness and evil

	Each tribe also had it's own exclusive tribal gods, mostly of war. Finally there were family gods and familiar spirits which originated from abortions, miscarriages and ghosts of the dead.
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The Legends of Maui

Half God and half man, he is a legendary figure of the Pacific. Maui tales told by the NZ maori concern his fishing up of the North Island (hence the name: Te Ika a Maui, or the Fish of Maui); the stealing of the fire for earth from the spirit world; and the snaring of the sun to lengthen the days. Maui used as his wonderful implement and weapon the jawbone of his great ancestress, Muri-ranga-whenua.

Maui's Fishing Trip

Maui went fishing with his brothers, fashioned a hook with his magic jawbone, smeared it with blood from his nose for bait, and pulled up the North Island. The hook became Hawkes Bay. Maui told his brothers not to touch the fish until he had made the appropriate incantations to the gods, but they disregarded him and began to cut it up, leaving it scarred and jagged as it appears today.

Maui takes on the sun

In times when the sun used to scud across the sky in brief periods of daylight, Maui, helped by his brothers, snared it one morning as it came over the horizon, and with his magic jawbone, hit it so hard it can now only limp slowly across the sky.

These tales of Maui are fine folk stories, but they were also linked with rituals associated with fishing and the making of fire.

Maui taking on an eel

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Hikurangi

Is the name of a mountain on the east coast of the North Island, in Waiapu County, Gisborne, reputedly the first place in NZ to receive the rays of the dawning sun. It is held in awe by Maoris who say it was the resting place of the canoe from which Maui fished up the North Island. The mountain is 1755m high, the tallest in the Raukumara Range. The name means sky peak and is named after a mountain in Hawaiki. It was believed in some regions that when Maui fished up the North Island, Hikurangi was the first part of the fish to rise, and therefore the first part of the land that light fell upon.

Kupe

Kupe is one of the most revered figures of Maori mythology to who is attributed the discovery of NZ, after the demi-god Maui had fished up the North Island out of the sea. Kupe is said o heave left Hawaiki to escape utu, after killing a man and escaping with his wife. He is believed to have been the only Maori to have journeyed here from the legendary homeland of Hawaiki, circumnavigated the country and then made the return journey. Sailing instructions for the journey from Hawaiki to NZ are embodied in oral traditions, although they are regarded by modern navigators with some skepticism.
According to the story largely constructed by the pakeha, Kupe sailed here about the middle of the 10th century and returned with precise sailing directions which enabled later migrants to make the journey, most notably in the alleged 'great fleet' of the mid-14th century. Although Kupe's places as a remarkable figure of Maori oral history remains secure, the elaborate migration theories in which he was included by pakeha anthropologists are now discredited. It was part of the tradition that Kupe arrived in the 10th century to find an unihabited country, whereas it is now known that Polynesian migrants arrived at least 200 years earlier.
Kupe's Sail

Putauaki - Mt Edgecumbe

Putauaki is a sacred mountain to the local Ngati-Awa. According to myth, it was originally one of the mountains grouped in the central North Island who fought over the beautiful Mount Pihanga. Tongariro defeated his rivals and Putauaki fled to the Bay of Plenty.

Taranaki - Mt Egmont

Taranki means 'barren mountain'. One of the famous of all Maori legends tells how Egmont was banished from Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe cluster in the central North Island after a fight for the affection of beautiful Mount Pihanga.

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Hinemoa and Tutanekai

Tutanekai, who lived many generations long ago on Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua, was of high rank but illegitimate birth. His mother was Rangiuru, wife of the leading rangatira Whakaue, but his father was Tuwharetoa, a rangatira from Kawerau who had visited the island during Whakaue's absence. Whakaue forgave his wife, reared the boy as his own son and grew very fond of him. Nevertheless, Tutanekai had to contend with the jealous animosity of his three elder half-brothers.
Every year the people living around Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti gathered for some days at Owhata, on the eastern shore of the lake, to discuss issues of importance. At these meetings the young men would gaze from a distance at the beautiful Hinemoa, high-ranking daughter of two great rangatira, Te Umu-karia and his wife Hine-maru. This girl had been made a puhi at birth; she was tapu, set apart, and lived in a special house with female attendants. Many men had sought to marry her, among them Whakaue's elder sons, but here people had not yet chosen a husband for her.
Like his brothers Tutanekai was in love with Hinemoa, although he did not imagine that she would return his love. But Tutanekai was a handsome man and a fine dancer and athlete, and soon Hinemoa fell in love with him. Glances were exchanged, then messages.
They did not tell their relatives, because Hinemoa's people would not have accepted such a marriage and Tutanekai's brothers would have strenuosly objected. When the meeting ended, Whakaue and his sons returned to Mokoia. Tutanekai told his father that he wanted Hinemoa and that his love was returned. He built himself a platform [atamira] on a rise behind his father's house, and every evening he and his friend Tiki sat there and played their flutes.
In the still air their music floated across to Owhata, four kilometres away, and Hinemoa knew it came from Tutanekai. Every evening she sat listening on the great rock Iriiri-kapua, wanting so much to go to him. But her people by now were suspicious, and every evening they dragged up their waka so that she ccould not paddle across to Mokoia.
One night she could stand it no longer, and despite the distance she made up her mind to swim. She found six gourds in a cookhouse, rested for a while on Iriir-kapua, them took off her clothes and entered the water, three empty gourds tied together under each arm. It was getting dark, but the sound of the flutes told her the way to go. After a while she came to a post, known as Hine-whata, to which her father tied his fishing nets. She rested there, then swam on, still guided by the flutes.
At last she reached Mokoia and found Waikimihia, a warm pool near the shore; she knew that Tutanekai's home was on the slope above. She was shivering with cold, so she got into the pool to warm herself. As well she was shivering with shame, wondering what Tutanekai would think about what she had done and ashamed to be without clothes.
Just then it happened that Tutanekai felt thirsty and sent his slave with a gourd to draw water. On the way back, the slave had to pass the pool where Hinemoa sat. She asked in a gruff voice, 'Who is that water for?'
The slave told her, 'Tutanekai.'
Hinemoa asked for the gourd, drank from it then broke it. He asked why she had done this, but she gave no answer. So he went and told his master, and was sent back again. Again Hinemoa took the gourd, drank, and broke it.
When the slave returned a second time, Tutanekai was furious at the insult. He put on fine cloaks, took his mere and went forward to fight this stranger who had infringed his tapu.
At the pool's edge he called out, but Hinemoa hid under a ledge of rock. Tutanekai felt around the edge, found her and pulled her out saying, 'Who is this?'
She told him, 'It's me Tutanekai.'
Tutanekai said, 'But who are you?'
'It's me - Hinemoa.'
Tutanekai led her from the pool and saw how beautiful she was. He placed one of his cloaks around her, and they went to his house and slept together. This, in those day, signified marriage.
At daybreak everyone was up and working, but Tutanekai did not appear. His father worried if he was ill and sent someone to see. The messenger slid aside the shutter on the window and saw four legs inside, not two. He rushed back and told what he had seen, he was sent again, and this time he recognised Hinemoa.
When he shouted the news, the elder brothers would not believe it. But then Tutanekai came out of his house with Hinemoa beside him. At the same time, across the lake, several large waka were seen approaching from Owhata. They knew it was Te Umu-karia and they expected war, but instead the two peoples made peace and there was much rejoicing. Tutanekai's elder brothers were the only ones who continued to resent the marriage.
As for Hinemoa and Tutanekai, they lived together happily and had many distinguished descendants.

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Aoraki - the legend of Mt Cook

A man who became a mountain Aoraki (Mount Cook) is the highest mountain in NZ. The myth is this mountain was once a man, Aoraki son of Raki (Rangi), from before his marriage to Papa. Aoraki and his brothers Rakiroa, Rakirua and Rarakiroa, came down from the sky to inspect their father's new wife. They found her lying in the ocean (a huge body of land known as Hawaiki, they sailed around her then set off to discover other countries, and during this time disaster's betook them, they performed a ritual chant incorrectly and their Waka began to sink. It turned to stone and earth and as it did so it heeled over, leaving the western side much higher than the eastern. The four men climbed to the higher sideand turned into mountains. Aoraki the eldest is the tallest peak. The others stand nearby Raikiroa (Mount Dampier), Rakirua (Mount Teichelmann and Rarakiroa (Silberhorn). Their ship is now the South Island.

The formation of Lake Wakatipu

Lake Wakatipu in the South Island had its origin in the death of a giant, Matau. When this monster carried off a girl named Manata, the daughter of a rangatira, the broken-hearted father promised her in marriage to any man who could rescue her.
A brave warrior named Matakauri determined to do so. He waited for a hot north-west wind, knowing that Matau would be asleep at this time, then he armed himself and set out. Towards evening he found Manata. She told him sobbing bitterly, that her captor had tied her to him with a long cord which could not be cut, because it was plaited from the hide of one of his ferocious two-headed dogs.
Nevertheless Matakauri went to a nearby ribver and built a raft to carry the girl away. When all was ready and they still could not cut the cord, she wept all the more; and when her tears fell upon the cord it parted at once. Matakauri's raft took them to safety and soon they were married.
The next time there was a north-west wind, Matakauri returned to kill Matau. He climbed the hill where the giant lay sleeping with his knees drawn up, and he piled bracken around him and set it on fire. The monster was burnt to death, and the fire left a deep hole in the ground in the shape of his body. The rivers from the mountains filled this hole with water, forming Lake Wakatipu.

Pania - A woman from the sea

Pania's home was in the sea, but every evening she would swim ashore and sit by a spring at Hukarere, near the entrance to the harbour at Ahuriri(Napier), then at dawn she would return to the sea.
One evening, Karitoki, went to draw water and discovered her there. He took her to his house and they slept together. After this she visited her husband every evening, but always at dawn she returned to sea. In time she gave birth to a son, he was quite bald, so they called him Moremore(Baldy).
Karitoki became anxious, thinking the boy might be taken away by the people of the sea, and he asked a tohunga how he could keep his son and wife. The tohunga told Karitoki to wait until they were asleep, then remove their tapu by placing cooked food upon them. When this was done they would no longer be able to return to the sea.
The husband did as he was told, but perhaps the food was not properly cooked, because Pania went back to her people and never returned. Her son Moremore became a Taniwha, the guardian of the rich resources of the great harbour of Te Whanga-nui-a-Orotu. He appears in different forms - a shark, octopus, log - warning his people of impending danger while they are gathering sea food.
Pania now takes the form of a reef (out from Napier). She can be seen, when the sea is calm, lying face downwards with her arms stretched towards the shore. The fish in her left armpit are rock cod, those in her right armpit are snapper, and those between her thighs are hapuku. She was once a tapu fishing ground, but now the tapu has been broken and there are not as many fish as before.

Understanding the Language
Aitua	Evil Fate The word means 'disaster, fate'
Apakura	The woman who urged revenge When someone was killed, it was sacred duty of the male relatives to obtain revenge. The woman's role was to lament the dead and incite the men to undertake this task. Apakura was the main mythical person who set the pattern for women in this respect. She weeps constantly seeking her
Atua	Unseen powers These are the supernatural beings of which there are different kinds. The word atua can be translated as 'god,spirit', though the word 'god' would be misleading as no worship or ceremonies to simply to praise them were involved. Instead, they were more like higher powers who had influence on things like the weather, where they would make offerings in return for favourable winds, fine weather etc. Wairua's (soul's) of past ancestors and children, were also believed to return to the families as atua and forwarn of dangers. Offerings were also made to these atua. Atua, being bodiless could enter into living bodies (animals, humans), or the wind, cloud, sun's rays.
Atua kahukahu	Malignant Spirits These were the wairua of aborted foetuses and stillborn children who were potentially ill-disposed towards the living, as they had been cheated at life and were not seen to owe loyalty to their relatives. To prevent such a wairua from afflicting people with illness and perhaps killing them, it was necessary to bury the body with appropriate rituals and offerings to the atua. Occasionally this was not done, or the ceremony was not successful, and the wairua turned into a dangerous Atua Kahukahu.
Atuahi	First born star This is Canopus, second brightest of the visible stars. When Tane, creating the world, was about to throw his basket of stars in to the sky, Atuhai clung to the outside of the basket so that he would be the first-born and could therefore, because of the Tapu of high rank, stay aloof from the common horde. The basket of stars became Te Mango-roa (the milky way) and Atuahi still hangs outside remaining apart.
Hau	Breath, wind, life
Hawaiki	The ancestrial homeland to the east
Hawaiki-rangi	The house with four doors
Hine-i-tapeka	Underground fire Fire in general comes from Mahuika, and is here possession. But volcanic fire, the fire that burns under the earth, was sometimes thought to belong to Mahuika's sister Hine-i-tapeka. The charred tree trunks embedded in the vast pumic deposits on the Kaingaroa Plains were attributed to her activities.
Hine-korako	The pale rainbow The luminous halo often seen around the moon was regarded as Hine-korako [pale woman]. She sometimes took the form of a pale rainbow, and sometimes she was identified with the moon.
Ioio-whenua	A peacemaker Son of Tane, when others began to stir up strife, he made peace.
Karitehe	An uncanny people These yellow-haired, white skinned people lived in the forests of the far north, some of them in the Kauhoehoe Caves, Sometimes they would seize humand girls who were out gathering the edible bracts of the kiekie flowers - for the karitehe were often up among these climbing plants, high in the trees. The girls they caught were never seen again. When an ancestor of Te Rarawa made one of their women his wife, the Karitehe abandoned their caves and the trouble ended.
Kaukau-matua	A treasured heirloom
Kehua	Supernatural visitors
Kiwa	Guardian of the ocean
Maero	Wild People
Mahuika	Origin of fire
Mahunui	The South Island
Mahutonga	The Southern Cross
Mana	Inherent Power
Matariki	Stars bringing the new year The english name for this small cluster of stars is the Pleiades, the Maori name means literally 'Little eyes' or 'little points'. For many peoples in many parts of Aotearoa, their appearance at dawn marked the end of the old year and the beginning of a new. Generally seven stars were discerned.