Tāwhaki

Carving from a Māori canoe

In Māori legend, Tāwhaki is a semi-supernatural being associated with lightning and thunder. In some versions he is a son of Hema and Urutonga; in others, with Hinepiripiri, he is the father of Matuku and Wahieroa. Hemā was killed by the Ponaturi, and Tāwhaki and his mother, Urotonga, and his brother, Karihi, kill them all but two in revenge. They trick the Ponaturi into entering a house, and then lock them in, claiming there is still time before the dawn. They then open the door after the sun was up, and the Ponaturi die at the exposure to sunlight. The survivors are Tonga-Hiti and Kanae. In some accounts, Tāwhaki is shown a vine to heaven by Whaitiri (his grandmother) and he climbs it, meeting first his ancestors, then Maru ( a war god), who teaches him weaponry and spells which, when chanted, will paralyze his enemies. He eventually reaches the sixth of twelve heavens, Ngā Atua, and is reunited with his late lover, Tangotango, and their daughter Arahuta.

Source:

• E.R. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay 1891), 497.

The nature of Māori oral tradition

The summary of the story of Tāwhaki that appears in the introduction to this article is based in large part on the writing of Tregear. One of the most important sources that Tregear would have used is George Grey. Grey, however, combined texts from different areas and presented a composite version of the story of Tāwhaki. It is important to realise that, as is the case in all oral traditions, there never was 'one correct version' of a story like Tāwhaki. As Albert Lord discovered, an oral traditional story has no definitive text, but consists of numberless variants, each improvised by the storyteller as he or she tells the tale. Lord theorized that the storyteller accesses a mental stockpile of verbal formulas, thematic constructs, and narrative incidents in the telling of a tale. This improvisation is for the most part unconscious; the tellers believe that they are faithfully recounting the story as it was handed down to them, even though the actual text of their tellings may differ substantially from day to day or from teller to teller. In the same way, in a country like New Zealand, each tribe has a different version (or series of related versions) of the story; in actual fact, the stories told by each storyteller within a tribe would be different; and the same storyteller would tell a slightly different tale each time it was told. To illustrate this variation in a small way, and to demonstrate that there is no one correct way to tell the story of Tāwhaki, versions from different tribal groups are presented below.

Arawa version

In an 1850 version of Tāwhaki by Hohepa Paraone of the Arawa tribe of Rotorua, Tāwhaki is a mortal man who is visited each night by Hāpai, a woman from the heavens. When Hāpai becomes pregnant, she tells Tāwhaki that if their child is female, he is to wash her. After their daughter Puanga is born, Tāwhaki washes her, but expresses disgust at the smell. Offended, Hāpai takes the child, climbs onto the roof of the house, and disappears into the sky.

After some months, Tāwhaki decides to go and find Hāpai and Puanga. He sets off with his two slaves. He warns the slaves not to look at the fortress of Tongameha as they pass by. One of the slaves looks, and Tongameha gouges out his eyes. Tāwhaki and the remaining slave go on, and meet Matakerepō, an old blind woman, guarding the vines (or ropes) that lead up into the heavens. Matakerepō is an ancestress of Tāwhaki's. As Matakerepō counts out her ten taro tubers, Tāwhaki removes them one by one.

Matakerepō, aware that someone is deceiving her, begins to sniff the air, and her stomach distends, ready to swallow the stranger. She sniffs towards the south, and towards all the winds. When she sniffs towards the west she catches Tāwhaki's scent and calls out 'Are you come with the wind that blows on my skin?' Tāwhaki grunts, and Matakerepō says, 'Oh, it is my grandson Tāwhaki.' Her stomach begins to shrink. Had he not been from the west wind, she would have swallowed him.

Matakerepō asks Tāwhaki where he is going. He replies that he is searching for his wife and daughter; his wife is a daughter of Whatitiri-matakamataka (or Whaitiri) and has returned to the heavens. Matakerepō shows him the pathway, advising him to set off in the morning. Tāwhaki's slave prepares a meal. Tāwhaki takes some cooked food and rubs it on the eyes of the old woman. Matakerepō is instantly cured of her blindness. In the morning, Tāwhaki presents his slave to Matakerepō, who chants an spell to help him as climbs. When he reaches the heavens, Tāwhaki disguises himself as an old slave and assists his brothers-in-law to build a canoe. Each night, the brothers-in-law return to their village, where Tāwhaki's wife and daughter are living. Pretending to be unable to keep up, Tāwhaki lets the brothers-in-law go on ahead, and returns to work on the canoe, arriving at the village much later. The next morning, Tāwhaki and the brothers-in-law return; seeing the canoe, the brothers-in-law are surprised by all the work that has been done. Each evening, Tāwhaki sits in the special seat of Hāpai, despite the protests of the villagers. These deeds of Tāwhaki bring him to Hāpai's attention, and she asks him who he is. Tāwhaki resumes his true appearance and is recognised by his wife. He performs rituals of dedication over their daughter.

Sources:

• H. Paraone, Legend of Tawhaki. (GNZMMSS 64, manuscript in Grey collection, Auckland City Library, Auckland, 1850), 345-352.
• J. White, The Ancient History of the Maori, Vol I (Government Printer: Wellington, 1887), 115-119 (English translation), 100-105 (Māori text).(White unaccountably attributes this Te Arawa story to the Ngāi Tahu tribe of the South Island; he also has 'Pihanga' instead of 'Puanga' for the name of Tāwhaki's daughter).

Ngāti Porou version

In a legend committed to manuscript by Mohi Ruatapu of Ngāti Porou in 1971, Tāwhaki is a descendant of Māui. Whaitiri, a grand-daughter of Māui, marries Kaitangata and has Hemā. Hemā marries Rawhita-i-te-rangi, and has Tāwhaki and his younger brother Karihi. Tāwhaki and Karihi set off to find their grandmother Whaitiri. They come to a village where a kawa (open ceremony) is being performed for Hine-te-kawa's house. They hide in the walls of the house and listen to the incantations. As the ceremony ends, Tāwhaki and Karihi leap out and kill all the people except Hine-te-kawa, who sleeps with Tāwhaki that night. She shows them the pathway they must take into the sky; it has pegs as footholds. Karihi makes several attempts at the climb, but falls to his death on the second attempt. Tāwhaki takes Karihi’s eyes and makes the climb. He comes upon Whaitiri, his blind grandmother, counting out twelve taro for her grandchildren, who are away at the village of Tama-i-waho. Tāwhaki removes the taro tubers one by one, until Whaitiri realises that it must be her grandson whom she had foretold would come to find her. Tāwhaki places Karihi’s eyes into her eyes, and her sight is restored. Tāwhaki busies himself tidying his grandmother’s village, and washes and cares for her. Tāwhaki catches marries Maikuku, one of Whaitiri’s granddaughters; the other granddaughters escape to Tama-i-waho's vilage, up in the second sky. When they look down and see Tāwhaki and Maikuku making love outdoors, they are offended and come down and take Maikuku away into the sky. Tāwhaki, desparate to find his wife, who is pregnant, tries to ascend on a kite, but the evil Tama-i-waho sends a hākuai, a mythical bird, to attack the kite, causing Tāwhaki to fall. Tāwhaki then turns himself into a harrier hawk, and takes off. Using his adze Te Rakuraku-o-te-rangi, Tama-i-waho cuts off one of the wings of the hawk, and Tāwhaki falls to his death. After Tāwhaki's death, Maikuku bears him a son, named Wahieroa.

Sources:

• A. Reedy, Ngā Kōrero a Mohi Ruatapu, tohunga rongonui o Ngāti Porou: The Writings of Mohi Ruatapu (Canterbury University Press: Christchurch), 1993, 25-33, 126-134.