Io Matua Kore is often understood as the supreme being in Polynesian native religion, particularly of the

Māori people Māori () are the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous Polynesians, Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of Māori migration canoes, c ...

. Io does seem to be present in the mythologies of other Polynesian islands including

Hawai‘i Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, t ...

, the

Society Islands The Society Islands ( , officially ; ) are an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean that includes the major islands of Tahiti, Mo'orea, Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora and Huahine. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country ...

, and the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

. He, or somebody else with his name, appears as a great-grandson of

Tiki In Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond; she seduced him and he became the father of Hine-kau-ataata. By extension, a tiki is a large or small woo ...

, and a father of another Io-rangi in

Moriori The Moriori are the first settlers of the Chatham Islands ( in Moriori language, Moriori; in Māori language, Māori). Moriori are Polynesians who came from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 AD, which was close to the time of the ...

mythology.

Controversy

Io was first known generally with the publication in 1913 of Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury's book, translated by Percy Smith as ''The Lore of the Whāre-wananga''. The idea that the Io represented a pre-Christian understanding of "God" much like the Christian God would be propagated by Elsdon Best in his ''Maori Religion and Mythology.'' The Io tradition was initially rejected by scholars including prominent Māori scholar Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck), who wrote, "The discovery of a supreme God named Io in New Zealand was a surprise to

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

and

Pākehā ''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...

alike." Buck believed that the Io tradition was restricted to the

Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāti Kahungunu is a Māori iwi (tribe) located along the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The iwi is traditionally centred in the Hawke's Bay and Wairārapa regions. The Kahungunu iwi also comprises 86 hapū (sub-tribes ...

as a response to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

Jonathan Z. Smith Jonathan Zittell Smith (November 21, 1938 – December 30, 2017), also known as J. Z. Smith, was an American history of religion, historian of religions. He was based at the University of Chicago for most of his career. His research included ...

questions the motives behind the existence of such a book, seeing this as a questionable emphasis of the idea around the Io. Others such as James Cox argues that this "pre-Christian" understanding of a supreme god may in fact be due to the earlier

Mormon missionary Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)—often referred to as Mormon missionaries—are volunteer representatives of the church who engage variously in proselytizing, church service, humanitarian aid, and ...

activities.

References

{{reflist Māori gods Creator gods

Controversy

See also

References