Uenuku

Uenuku and Turi 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. Unfortunately, the poor boy tripped at the opening of Uenuku's house, Wharekura, which bothered Uenuku so much that he killed and cannibalized him raw. During the next summer, Hoimatua's relative Turi slew Uenuku's son Hawepotiki in revenge. 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. Uenuku lamented the absence of his son, not knowing where he was, and unwittingly bit into the heart. 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. Turi's wife Rongorongo later overheard Uenuku chanting incantations of revenge, so he took his people and fled to New Zealand. or by being denied a tapu grooming of his hair before the family set out on a new canoe that Uenuku had built Uenuku and Tamatekapua In Te Arawa traditions, Chief Uenuku of Ra'iātea Island becomes annoyed with a dog named Pōtaka Tawhiti, the pet of Houmaitawhiti, for eating the leaked matter of Uenuku's ulcer, by which it commits an act of desecration. He kills the dog, after which Toi-te-huatahi consumes it. The ancestor Tamatekapua and his brother Whakatūria, sons of Houmai, search for the dog, and hear it barking inside Toi's belly. In revenge, they created stilts for Tama (the taller of the brothers) and stole the fruit from Uenuku's poroporo tree. 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. Reportedly, their singing was so horrendously bad that the brothers, under the cover of darkness, came up with a clever way to trick the people into releasing him; the next opportunity he had, he told the people that their dancing and singing was terrible, and indeed they challenged him to do better, and let him down. He had them pamper him by cleaning the soot off and giving him some fine ornaments to dress himself in for the dance. 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. Whakatūria manages to sprint through the open door, and the brothers bolt up the building from the outside. Uenuku declares war, and with his friend Toi he attacks the village of Houmai, but the forces of Uenuku were ultimately defeated. Whakatūria also fell in the battle, so the Arawa canoe was set out to New Zealand with one purpose being to search for meaning behind his death. At this time, the Tainui canoe was also on its way to New Zealand at this time. In this telling, Uenuku lived four generations after Ruatapu, who was one of Houmaitawhiti's ancestors. ==Uenuku and the mist maiden==

In traditions most commonly associated with Ngāi Tūhoe—the children of the mist—Uenuku was once human, and one early morning when he was out hunting, in a clearing, he saw two women. One was named Hinepūkohurangi who seemed to coalesce out of the morning mist, and her sister was Hinewai. They were daughters of Ranginui the sky father. He tried to explain that his wife left him each morning at first light, so his friends suggested that he block up the doors and windows so she could not see the sun. Finally after more torturous ridicule, he was convinced to block the windows and door when she came to him one night so that she could not see the daylight in the morning, then he could prove she existed. This he did, but of course, the mist maiden felt tricked when she found he had deceived her. She sang him a song of farewell and returned to the sky and left him for as long as he lived. Today the apparition of a rainbow above Tapuae-o-Uenuku serves as a reminder of his journey. ==Iwipupu and the rainbow==

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. As soon as Tamatea returned, Iwipupu told him she had been visited by somebody of his likeness, and then he figured that it was the spirit of Uenuku who made her pregnant. Some months later, Iwipupu birthed a stillborn child. Tamatea took the child to a tapu place, where he cuts his hair, to bury it later. Upon returning, the body had disappeared, and manifested into a rainbow above the ocean, alongside Hine-korako. 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. A child was later born named Uenuku-wharekuta. ==Artefacts==

According to local legend, the spirit of Uenuku was brought from Hawaiki to the North Island in a stone by the people of the Tainui. When they landed, they made the large carving known as either Uenuku or Te Uenuku out of tōtara with a round opening at the top, in which the stone was placed so that the spirit of Uenuku inhabited the carving. The carving is unique in form, and bears a noted resemblance to Hawaiian carving styles. Today, Te Awamutu Museum in Waikato has Te Uenuku in its possession. ==Similar characters==

Kahukura . Kahukura is another atua of the rainbow. Tūāwhiorangi is his wife, represented by the lower bow. 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, and may also be a god of war in some places whose apparition represents an omen. A literal translation of Kahukura is 'red garment'. Rongonuiatau may be a similar atua. sometimes she may be referred to as ‘Atua wharoro mai te rangi’. a role taken on by Tāne in other Māori traditions. Ōkahukura in Auckland is also named after him. Kahukura also shares his name with two ancestors; one was a Northern ancestor who learnt the art of making nets from the patupaiarehe, the other returned to Hawaiki aboard Horouta to bring the kūmara back to New Zealand. Haere Haere is a Ngāi Tūhoe name for another atua of the rainbow. There are at least three representing brothers, or forms: Haere-kohiko, Haere-waewae and Haere-atautu. One story says they went to avenge their father's death, and failed the first time on breaking a rule of tapu, and then later succeeded with the use of incantations. In some ancient traditions, Moekahu the dog atua of Tūhoe is said to be their sister. Very little is still remembered of Haere. She may be known across Polynesia as Anuanua. ==See also==