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MÄORI UNDERSTANDING MĀORI TIKANGA AND TE REO
Mäori Society and Culture:
Oceans and Waterways
Story by Dr R. Taonui
OCEAN CULTURE
All cultures have been fascinated by water – its moods, strength
and tranquillity. Mäori and their Polynesian forebears have
been island peoples for many generations. The Austronesian
ancestral culture the Mäori flourished 6,000 years ago in the
oceanic environment of the Indonesian and Pilipino archipelagos
before intrepid voyagers settled the islands of Micronesia,
Melanesia and Polynesia; water therefore figures prominently
in their world view. For Polynesian and Mäori alike,
the ocean was an essential source of food and other resources
and provided multiple pathways between island communities.
Tribes lived and sometimes died by the vagaries and fortunes
of their maritime world. The spiritual world was known as Te
Taha Wairua or Te Ao Wairua – literally ‘the dimension of two
waters’, a conception that likens spirituality to water.
6 LINKZ | ISSUE 48 | 2011
TANGAROA – SON OF EARTH AND SkY
Tangaroa is the God of the Oceans and the principal Mäori deity
of the sea. Most well-known versions of the Mäori creation
story say he is the son of Papatüänuku (Earthmother) and
Ranginui (Skyfather). Lying between the close embrace of his
parents Tangaroa is one of many children who went to live in
the world when the heavens and earth were parted. In Ngäti
Raukawa and Ngäi Tahu versions Tangaroa is the husband of
Papatüänuku and a competitor of Ranginui, narratives that
reflect an islander’s world view that much of the earth appears
to be under the sea. Tangaroa was also known as Tangaroawhakamau-tai,
the controller of the rides, which Mäori thought
were caused by his breathing. Tangaroa is known throughout
Polynesia by several cognate names, such as Tagaloa-lagi in
Samoa and Tonga, and far back into ancestral Asia where
Tagalog was a bird that soared out of the heavens during the
creation. Hinemoana (female of the sea) and Hinewai (female
of fresh water) are the female deities of water.