Māori mythology Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori people, Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern tales of supernatural events relating to the origins of what was the ...

, Manaia was a chief of the mythological land

Hawaiki (also rendered as in the Cook Islands, Hawaiki in Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is, in Polynesian folklore, the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in man ...

. He developed a fierce rivalry with his brother-in-law

Ngātoro-i-rangi In Māori tradition, Ngātoro-i-rangi (Ngātoro) is the name of a tohunga (priest) prominent during the settling of New Zealand (Aotearoa) by the Māori people, who came from the traditional homeland Hawaiki on the '' Arawa'' canoe. He is the anc ...

, the ancestor of

Ngati Tuwharetoa ''Ngati'' is a 1987 New Zealand feature film directed by Barry Barclay, written by Tama Poata and produced by John O'Shea (director), John O'Shea. Production ''Ngati'' is of historical and cultural significance in New Zealand as it is the fir ...

, but was defeated by him in Hawaiki at the battles of Ihumotomotokia and Tarai-whenua-kura. Eventually, he led a great fleet to attack Ngātoro-i-rangi in New Zealand, but the whole fleet was destroyed by the storm Te Aputahi-a-Pawa and Manaia drowned.

Life

Manaia was born on Hawaiki and was married to Kuiwai, the sister of

, a powerful

tohunga In the culture of the Māori people, Māori of New Zealand, a tohunga (tōhuka in Southern Māori dialect) is an expert practitioner of any skill or art, either religious or otherwise. Tohunga include expert priests, healers, navigators, carvers, ...

, who travelled to New Zealand and became the ancestor of

. After Ngātoro-i-rangi had departed for New Zealand on the '' Arawa'' canoe, Manaia held a feast, at which the food cooked by Kuiwai was found to be under-cooked. Manaia angrily cursed her and threatened to cook her brother Ngātoro-i-rangi as poorly as Kuiwai had cooked the meal - a powerful curse. Kuiwai invoked the gods Kahukura, Itupawa, and

Rongomai In Māori mythology, Rongomai refers to several entities: * a deity by whose assistance Haungaroa traveled from Hawaiki to New Zealand as she went to tell Ngātoro-i-rangi that he had been cursed by Manaia. * a being in whale form which attacked ...

and received approval to send warning to Ngātoro-i-rangi in New Zealand. Her sister Haungaroa made the journey with some other women, eventually finding him at

Maketu Maketu is a small town on the Western Bay of Plenty coast in New Zealand. It is located roughly from Paengaroa, from Te Puke, from Tauranga, from Rotorua and from Whakatane. Maketu has an estuary from which the Kaituna River used to flow, ...

in the

Bay of plenty The Bay of Plenty () is a large bight (geography), bight along the northern coast of New Zealand's North Island. It stretches from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaway in the east. Called ''Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi'' (the Ocean ...

Battles of Ihumotomotokia and Tarai-whenua-kura

Ngātoro-i-rangi performed rituals to ward off the curse, cursed Manaia in return, and set out for Hawaiki with a force of 140 men with a force to take vengeance on Manaia. They built a canoe called ''Totara-keria'' from a tree that they found in the Waewaetutuki swamp. They travelled in the canoe for seven days until they reached Hawaiki. At the village of Whaitirikapapa, Manaia's

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

s prayed continuously for the deaths of Ngātoro-i-rangi and his allies and were so confident that they would win easily that they prepared large ovens to cook Ngātoro-i-rangi and his warriors. Ngātoro-i-rangi landed at Tata-i-whenua in Hawaiki, snuck into Whaitirikapapa and learnt about all of this. He and his men lay down inside the ovens, bloodied themselves, and pretended to be dead, thus laying an ambush. In their over-confidence, Manaia's men assumed that the priests' incantations had successfully killed their enemies and delivered them to the ovens. They advanced recklessly and all Manaia's men and priests were killed; only Manaia himself survived. This battle was known as Ihumotomotokia ("the battle of the bruised noses") because the victors had bloodied themselves by punching their own noses. Manaia went around to the villages of Hawaiki and gathered a new army to attack the invaders. They attacked one of Ngātoro-i-rangi's men, Rangitu, as he was collecting water for the return voyage in a calabash. He defended himself with the calabash itself, fled to the beach, raised the alarm, and killed one of the pursuers with his whalebone

mere Mere may refer to: Places * Mere, Belgium, a village in East Flanders * Mere, Cheshire, England * Mere, Wiltshire, England People * Mere Broughton (1938–2016), New Zealand Māori language activist and unionist * Mere Smith, American television ...

. Manaia's men were defeated on the beach, but he escaped again. This battle was called Tarai-whenua-kura.

Storm of Te Aputahi-a-Pawa

Ngātoro-i-rangi returned to New Zealand and settled at Matarehua on

Mōtītī Island Mōtītī Island is an island in the Bay of Plenty, off the coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is north-east of Papamoa Beach on the mainland and north-east of Tauranga. There were 18 homes occupied by 27 people on the island in the 20 ...

, where he built a house for himself and his wife called Taimaihi-o-Tongo. Manaia gathered an army and set sail to New Zealand to attack them. Manaia sailed into the bay beneath Matarehua, when Ngātoro-i-rangi and his wife were alone on the island, and Manaia issued a challenge. Ngātoro-i-rangi came out and told Manaia to wait until dawn, so that they could see each other when they fought. Ngātoro-i-rangi and his wife, however, performed incantations overnight, as a result of which

Tāwhirimātea In Māori mythology, Tāwhirimātea (or Tāwhiri) is the god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms. He is a son of Rangi and Papa, Papatūānuku (Earth goddess, earth mother) and Rangi and Papa, Ranginui (sky father ...

, the

god In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

and

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...

s, sent a great storm called Te Aputahi-a-Pawa that destroyed Manaia's canoes and killed Manaia himself. Only one canoe from Manaia's fleet escaped, ''Te Pungapunga''. A crewman from this canoe swam ashore and settled at Maketu, where he had descendants.

References

Bibliography

* *{{Cite book, last1=Stafford, first1=D.M., year=1967, title=Te Arawa: A History of the Arawa People, publisher=A.H. & A.W. Reed, location= Rotorua, New Zealand *R.D. Craig, ''Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology'' (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 154. *E.R. Tregear, ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay 1891), 203–204. Māori mythology Polynesian maritime navigators