Uenuku

Māori believed that the rainbow's appearance represented an omen, and one kind of yearly offering made to him was that of the young leaves of the first planted kūmara crop.

[4] In traditions from further north in the Pacific, Chief Uanuku Rakeiora and his son Ruatapu are said to have lived on Ra'iātea Island just over 27 generations ago,[5] as descendants of Tangiia, contemporary of Iro-nui-ma-Oata (Whiro).

In Ngāi Tūhoe stories concerning Uenuku's ascension to godhood, he betrays the trust of his supernatural wife, Hinepūkohurangi, and wanders the earth searching for her until he dies and transforms into a personification of the rainbow.

The Waikato Tainui used to invoke his spirit to temporarily inhabit smaller idols during times of war, which they would carry into battle to represent their guardian.

It was the first TV drama to be entirely performed in te reo (The Listener magazine softened viewers by providing a translation prior to screening).

[9] According to the legends of the people of the Aotea canoe, Hoimatua sent his little son Potikiroroa to give part of a burnt offering to the ariki, Uenuku.

He and his friends then proceeded to eat of the body, and even managed to slip the child's heart into a food basket meant for Chief Uenuku.

He was quickly informed of the deeds of Turi however, and calmly swore revenge, threatening that he would feed his son's murderers to Toi-te-huatahi.

Upon learning of the attack, and with a sense of duty to being a hospitable host, he instructed the guests to leave, and warned that he would pursue them at a later date.

Uenuku was not finished however, and using powerful incantations and spells, he summoned a great darkness, and the mists from the mountains to ascend to the earth, whereupon the enemy began to slaughter their own in confusion until only Tawheta and a handful of his men remained.

After this, Ruatapu lures the nobles of Hawaiki into a canoe, and then kills all of them, save for Kahutia-te-rangi who manages to escape and migrate to New Zealand with the help of the gods.

The ancestor Tamatekapua and his brother Whakatūria, sons of Houmai, search for the dog, and hear it barking inside Toi's belly.

[16][17] Whakatūria was captured and hung from the roof of Uenuku's house, where the people would dance and sing around a fire below him every single night.

He then tricked them into opening the door, so that he could feel the cool air, outside of which his brother Tama had arrived with two wooden poles to lock the people inside.

At last, nearer to his death, seeing him lonely and bent with age, Ranginui took pity, and changed him into a rainbow so that he could join his family in the sky,[20] where they remain to this day and watch over their descendants together.

[24][25] In one story, Uenuku visits a woman named Iwipupu over the course of many nights, while her husband Chief Tamatea-ariki-nui of Hawaiki is away from home.

Iwipupu falls pregnant to the supernatural entity, with his instructions being to name the child Uenuku-titi if it was a girl, and Uenuku-rangi if it is a boy.

[2] In a version recorded from Hori Ropiha of Waipawa in the late 19th century, Iwipupu was visited after Tamatea offered an umbilical cord to his atua, Uenuku, by hanging it up over the window.

[28] In the traditions of Ngāti Awa, Kahukura (also Kahukura-pango, and Kahukura-i-te-rangi) is the name of another atua who manifests as the upper bow during double rainbows,[29] and may also be a god of war in some places whose apparition represents an omen.

[2] It is said that he was the descendant of Pou-te-aniwaniwa (possibly Pou-te-anuanua of Rarotonga), and the son of Rongo-mai (personified form of meteors and meteorites) and Hine-te-wai.

Using the bodies of his mother, father, Paoka-o-te-rangi, Totoe-rangi, Tahaina, Kaurukiruki, and Hereumu, he built a bridge from Hawaiki to New Zealand for himself and his wife Rongoiamo to cross the Pacific Ocean.

[7] In Hawaiian mythology, ʻĀnuenue is a rainbow maiden who acts as the messenger for her brothers Kāne and Kanaloa who frequently send her to collect the offspring of Kū and Hine.