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Māui sailed a canoe called Mahaanui and after he had pulled up the North Island (Te Ika a Maui) he left Mahaanui on top of a mountain in the foothills behind what is now Ashburton. That mountain now bears the name Mahaanui, [ 13 ] and the coastline between Banks Peninsula and the Waitaki River is called Te tai o Mahaanui (the tides of Mahaanui).
Māui or Maui is the great culture hero and trickster in Polynesian mythology. Very rarely was Māui actually worshipped, being less of a deity ( demigod ) and more of a folk hero . His origins vary from culture to culture, but many of his main exploits remain relatively similar.
This version of Maui incorporates elements of the Māui from Māori mythology and other Polynesian narratives. Maui was also the subject of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole 's song "Maui Hawaiian Sup'pa Man" in his most well-known album, Facing Future , which is the highest selling Hawaiian album of all time.
Māui attempting to enter Hine-nui-te-pō. Carving by Tene Waitere in the meeting house Rauru (opened in 1900). [1] Hinenuitepo meeting house at Te Whaiti in 1930. Hine-nui-te-pō ("the great woman of the night") in Māori legends, is a goddess of night and she receives the spirits of humans when they die.
Māui found her with his father, Makeatutara, a guardian of the underworld. Taranga introduced them and his father performed the dedicatory ritual over his son. Because Makeatutara made mistakes in the incantation, Māui was fated to die and thus humankind is mortal. In some versions, Taranga is a man, the son of Murirangawhenua.
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. The ritual chants concerning firemaking, fishing, death, and so on made reference to Maui and derived their power from such reference.
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When Kamehameha I died in 1819, Queen Kaʻahumanu declared herself a co-ruler with his son Kamehameha II. She challenged many of the conventions of Hawaiian society, ending the kapu system. Heiau were destroyed, images burned or broken, and priests chased away. This threw the religious life of Hawaiians into confusion.