Māori mythology
The rituals, beliefs, and general worldview of Māori society were ultimately based on an elaborate mythology that had been inherited from a Polynesian homeland (Hawaiki) and adapted and developed in the new setting.
Firstly it served to provide a kind of time scale which unified all Māori mythology, tradition, and history, from the distant past to the present.
The Maui myth, for example, was important not only as entertainment but also because it embodied the beliefs of the people concerning such things as the origin of fire, of death, and of the land in which they lived.
Abbreviated, sometimes cryptic utterances and the use of certain grammatical constructions not found in prose are also common.Few records survive of the extensive body of Māori mythology and tradition from the early years of European contact.
[4][b] The earliest full account of the genealogies of atua and the first humans was recorded from Ngāti Rangiwewehi's Wī Maihi Te Rangikāheke in Nga Tama a Rangi (The Sons of Heaven), in 1849.
[3] Much of the culturally institutioned behaviour of the people finds its sanctions in myth, such as opening ceremonies performed at dawn to reflect the coming of light into the world.
Another theme likens evolution to the development of a child in the womb, as in the sequence “the seeking, the searching, the conception, the growth, the feeling, the thought, the mind, the desire, the knowledge, the form, the quickening”.
[8] In a slight variant, Aoraki and his grandfather Kirikirikatata landed at Shag Point aboard the Āraiteuru, where they turned into the ever-associated mountain and range.
Māui and his brothers journeyed to Tamanuiterā's sleeping pit with a large rope, which in some tellings was made from their sister Hina's hair.
Using a patu made from the jawbone of their grandmother, Murirangawhenua, Māui beat the sun into agreeing to slow down and give the world more time during the day.
[18] In south Westland, Kāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio's Te Tauraka Waka a Maui Marae[19] is named in honour of the tradition stating that Māui landed his canoe in Bruce Bay when he arrived in New Zealand.
[20] In a tale collected from a Kāi Tahu woman of Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora, Māui threw a giant to the ocean and then buried him beneath a mountain at Banks Peninsula.
[13] The next winter, the giant remained still underneath the mountain, but stirred during summer, which caused the land to split and form Akaroa Harbour.
Out of jealousy though, the brothers took to beating the fish and cutting it open, carving out the mountains and valleys of what would become Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island.
[12]: 107 Once they reached the shore Māui crushed Irawaru underneath the canoe, breaking his back and stretching out his limbs, turning him into a dog.
This proved to be a mistake on Tinirau's part, as despite his strict instructions to the contrary, Kae rode Tutunui into shallow water where he became stranded and died.
Unfortunately, one of his brothers, or one of the birds named Pīwakawaka, bursts out into laughter at the sight of Māui beginning the task which wakes Hinenuitepō, who crushes him with the obsidian and pounamu teeth between her thighs.
Whaitiri, a cannibalistic atua of thunder and a granddaughter of Māui, married the mortal Kaitangata (Eat people) believing, as his name suggested, that he too was a cannibal.
He decided to hide in a nearby bush for the night to understand what was happening, and discovered that his work was being undone by the birdlike hākuturi spirits, who explained that he didn't perform the correct rituals and thus his attempts to fell the tree were an insult to Tāne Mahuta.
[12]: 15 In other accounts still, Apakura as Tūwhakararo's wife threw an apron or girdle into the ocean, which a deity named Rongotakawhiu turned into Whakatau.
They are geographically located in New Zealand and knowledge of them is confined to this country.The South Island's earliest iwi, Waitaha, traces its ancestors back to the Uruaokapuarangi, captained by Rākaihautū who sailed from Te Patunuioāio to New Zealand with the tohunga kōkōrangi (astronomer) Matiti's advice, and in mythology was credited with digging many of the island's great lakes and waterways.
He sent kūmara back to the new lands with the canoe,[29] which in Ngāti Kahungunu traditions was accompanied by Kiwa, who later sailed around to Gisborne and became the first man there.
In Ngāpuhi tradition, he brought the first three dogs and sent them to Cape Reinga with a few men to guard the passage to the afterlife, who would become the Ngāti Kurī.
Kupe's exploration of Marlborough had been impeded by Te Kāhui Tipua,[30] frequently described as a tribe of ogres or giants that arrived with Rākaihautū.
There are at least two traditions regarding this: In one story, another man named Kahukura happened across the patupaiarehe pulling in their nets during the night, and offered to help them.
[40] Another theory suggests that the iwi was concerned about the intruders possibly waking the taniwha Ngārara Huarau in anchoring too close to a certain point.
[49] A Kāti Māmoe chief of Waiharakeke Pa named Te Whetuki was described as being "of strangely wild aspect", and covered in long hair.
[39]: 194 One tradition states that a group of Kāti Māmoe managed to escape an attack by forever disappearing into the forests on the other side of Lake Te Anau,[39]: 196 the descendants of which were possibly sighted in the Hāwea / Bligh Sound by Captain Howell in 1843, and again in 1850/1 by Captain Stokes,[50] and in 1872 by Kupa Haereroa at Lake Ada,[39]: 198 and finally in 1882.
[11] At least two references to him from 1891 appear in Edward Tregear's The Maori-Polynesian comparative dictionary, where he is described as "God, the Supreme Being",[12]: 106 and as a figure in Moriori genealogy, but as Tiki's descendant.
[52] In some versions of Tāwhaki's story, he sends his people to a high place to escape a flood which he summons to drown the village of his jealous brothers-in-law.
