Raka-maomao or Rakamaomao, in
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 ...
, is a god of
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 ...
. He is the god of ordinary winds, in contrast to
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 ...
, who is the god of tempests.
To the
Waitaha tribe of the
South Island
The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...
, Rakamaomao was the group of winds that blew from the south and north.
Raka-maomao is equivalent to Ra‘a (Society Islands),
Raka (Cook Islands),
La'a Maomao (
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
)
and
Fa'atiu (
Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...
).
References
Māori gods
Wind deities
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