Parentage and family Māui was the son of
Taranga and
Makeatutara, guardian of the
underworld. He was born prematurely and his mother, fearing he would return as (malevolent child
spirits), covered by swarms of flies and gulls, and nourished him to adolescence. When Māui became old enough, he travelled to his family's home and found his four brothers, Māui-taha, Māui-roto, Māui-pae, and Māui-waho, and his sister,
Hina. When it emerged from the water, Māui left to find a
tohunga to perform the appropriate ceremonies and prayers, leaving his brothers in charge. They, however, did not wait for Māui to return but began to cut up the fish, which writhed in agony, causing it to break up into mountains, cliffs and valleys. If the brothers had listened to Māui, the island would have been a level plain, and people would have been able to travel with ease on its surface. and the coastline between Banks Peninsula and the Waitaki River is called Te Tai o Mahaanui ("the sea of Mahaanui"). A
Kāi Tahu variation tells of Māui threw a
giant to the ocean and then buried him beneath a mountain at
Banks Peninsula. The next winter, the giant remained still underneath the mountain, but stirred during summer, which caused the land to split and form
Akaroa Harbour. Māui would continue to pile earth on top of the giant, and the giant would continue to stir every summer, creating a lake and Pigeon Bay in the process, until finally the giant could not move anymore. and predates Māui's expedition– Māui was told to have landed in
Mahitahi (now Bruce Bay) following instructions of previous navigators before sailing around the island and going northward, and was surprised to find presence of fires started by "wild men of the woods" in the North Island. In south
Westland,
Kāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio's Te Tauraka Waka a Māui Marae is named in honour of the tradition stating that Māui landed his canoe in Mahitahi.
Mahuika in
Te Tohunga, The Ancient Legends and Traditions of the Maoris (1907) by Wilhelm Dittmer. Māui wanted to know where fire came from, so one night he went among the villages of his people and put all the fires out. Taranga, as the village , said that someone would have to ask
Mahuika, the goddess of fire, for more. Māui visited her cave in a burning mountain at the end of the Earth, where she gave Māui one of her burning fingernails to relight the fires. Māui extinguished fingernail after fingernail until Mahuika became angry and sent fire to pursue Māui. Māui transformed himself into a
hawk to escape, but to no avail, for Mahuika set both land and sea on fire. Māui prayed to
Tāwhirimātea, god of weather, and
Whaitiri-matakataka, goddess of thunder, who answered by pouring rain to extinguish the fire. Mahuika threw her last nail at Māui, but it missed him and flew into groves of
māhoe and
kaikōmako tress. Māui brought back dry sticks of these trees to his village and showed his people how to rub the sticks together and make fire.
Irawaru Māui went fishing with
Irawaru, the husband of his sister
Hina. During the expedition, he became annoyed with Irawaru; versions differ as to the cause. In some, Māui was jealous of Irawaru's success at fishing; in others, they disagreed when their fishing-lines became entangled; in still others, Māui was angry at Irawaru's refusal to give him a cloak, or disgusted at Irawaru's greedy nature. Whatever the provocation, when Māui and Irawaru returned to shore, Māui stretched out Irawaru's limbs and transformed him into the first
dog. When Hina asked Māui if he had seen her husband, Māui told her to call "Moi! Moi!", whereupon Irawaru, in dog form, came running. Hina, in grief, threw herself into the ocean never to be seen again. , set between tukutuku panels.
Death Māui, confident after his early achievements, decided to pursue immortality for humankind by confronting
Hine-nui-te-pō, goddess of the night. His father warned him he would fail due to flaws in his baptismal ceremony. Māui, undaunted, set out westward, with his companions, to the home of Hine-nui-te-pō. Depending on the version, his companions are a group of birds—the
tomtit,
robin,
grey warbler and
fantail—or his brothers. He finds
Hine-nui-te-pō asleep with her legs apart, and he and his companions see sharp flints of
obsidian and
greenstone between her thighs. Turning into a worm or lizard, Māui tells his companion to not laugh as he climbed into
Hine-nui-te-pō, until he emerged from her mouth. Once Māui's head and arms disappeared into the goddess, the fantail bird began to laugh, awakening Hine-nui-te-pō. The goddess claps her legs together and cut Māui in two, making him the first to die and all humans left mortal. == See also ==