Maori creationism

Today I skipped out of clinic early and went back to Auckland Domain to visit the museum and the wintergardens.

The museum contains exhibitions about Māori culture and history, so I would like to share my two favourite legends:

The legend of Māui:

Māui was born premature to Taranga and Makeatutara, the guardian of the underworld. Because he was premature, Taranga wrapped him in her hair and threw him in the river, where he was brought up by sea spirits. When he was an adult he went back to his parent's house and was welcomed with open arms.

Shortly after, he decides the days are too short for humans to get their work done. He and his brothers throw a noose around the sun, and Māui severely beats him with a jaw bone until he promises to move slower. This is why days last 24 hours.

He then uses the same jaw bone as a fish hook and, from the ocean, hauls up a fish made of land - the North Island of New Zealand (Aotearoa). He gives the fish to his brothers to look after while he goes to find a priest to give the approprite blessings, but they are impatient and start to cut up the fish to get their own share. The fish doesn't like this and begins to struggle, causing it to break apart into mountains, cliffs and valleys. If they had waited for Māui the land would have been a level plain. And so the North Island is known as Te Ika-a-Māui (The Fish of Māui).

When he was hauling up the North Island, he needed to use a canoe to steady himself. His canoe became the South Island, which is known as Te Waka a Māui (The Canoe of Māui).

The legend of Ngātoro-i-rangi:

Ngātoro-i-rangi, a high priest, was very important to the Māori during the settlement on Aotearoa. During one voyage he got caught in a blizzard while scaling Mount Tongariro (literally means 'looking south') with his slave, Ngāuruhoe. He called to his sisters, who were elsewhere, to send him sacred fire to warm him up. The fire they sent came up through holes in the ground, and so Ngātoro-i-rangi is credited for bringing volcanoes to Aotearoa. The fire arrived in time to save Ngātoro-i-rangi from freezing to death, but when he turned to pass the fire on to Ngāuruhoe, he found he had succumbed to the cold. So the hole through which the fire ascended, the active cone of Tongariro, is called Ngāuruhoe.

To finish up, here are a few pictures of things I've seen the last few days, selected from my Flickr account (click on the sidebar for all of them!).

Māori representations of my cousins, in Auckland Museum:

Yellow aubergines, in the Wintergarden:

Boats, in the Auckland Viaduct: