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In Māori mythology, Rongomai refers to several entities:
Tokomaru Bay is a small beachside community on the remote East Coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is 91 km north of Gisborne, on State Highway 35, and close to Mount Hikurangi. The district was originally known as Toka-a-Namu, which refers to the abundance of sandflies. Over the years the name was altered to Tokomaru Bay.
Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi (tribe) of the lower Northland Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island. It comprises a confederation of four hapū (subtribes) interconnected both by ancestry and by association over time: Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei. The four hapū can act together or separately as independent tribes.
Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua at Matatā across the central plateau of the North Island to the lands around Mount Tongariro and Lake Taupō.
Various Māori traditions recount how their ancestors set out from their homeland in waka hourua, large twin-hulled ocean-going canoes (waka). Some of these traditions name a homeland called Hawaiki.
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 ancestor of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and his travels around Lake Taupō and up onto the Volcanic Plateau are the basis of Ngāti Tūwharetoa's claim to those regions.
Tākitimu was a waka (canoe) with whakapapa throughout the Pacific particularly with Samoa, the Cook Islands, and New Zealand in ancient times. In several Māori traditions, the Tākitimu was one of the great Māori migration ships that brought Polynesian migrants to New Zealand from Hawaiki. The canoe was said to be captained by Tamatea.
Mātaatua was one of the great voyaging canoes by which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand, according to Māori tradition. Māori traditions say that the Mātaatua was initially sent from Hawaiki to bring supplies of kūmara to Māori settlements in New Zealand. The Mātaatua was captained by Toroa, accompanied by his brother, Puhi; his sister, Muriwai; his son, Ruaihona; and daughter, Wairaka.
Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern tales of supernatural events relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pre-European Māori, often involving gods and demigods. Māori tradition concerns more folkloric legends often involving historical or semi-historical forebears. Both categories merge in whakapapa to explain the overall origin of the Māori and their connections to the world which they lived in.
Ngāti Ruanui is a Māori iwi traditionally based in the Taranaki region of New Zealand. In the 2006 census, 7,035 people claimed affiliation to the iwi. However, most members now live outside the traditional areas of the iwi.
Te Āti Awa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Taranaki and Wellington regions of New Zealand. Approximately 17,000 people registered their affiliation to Te Āti Awa in 2001, with around 10,000 in Taranaki, 2,000 in Wellington and around 5,000 of unspecified regional location.
Ngāti Pūkenga is a Māori iwi centred in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. Its rohe extends to Mayor Island / Tuhua and Waihi in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, south of Te Puke and to Maketu in the east, and it has tribal holdings in Whangarei, Hauraki and Maketu.
Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti is a Māori iwi (tribe) on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island. Its rohe covers the area from Tawhiti-a-Paoa Tokomaru Bay to Te Toka-a-Taiau Gisborne on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
Ngāti Maru is a Māori iwi (tribe) of the Hauraki region of New Zealand. The stronghold of Ngāti Maru has been the Thames area. Ngāti Maru are descendants of Te Ngako, also known as Te Ngakohua, the son of Marutūāhu, after whom the tribe is named.
The Ngāti Tama is a historic Māori tribe of present-day New Zealand. Their origins, according to Maori oral tradition, date back to Tama Ariki, the chief navigator on the Tokomaru waka. They are located in north Taranaki, around Poutama. River Mōhakatino marks their northern boundary with the Tainui and the Ngāti Maniapoto. The close geographical proximity of Tainui's Ngāti Toa of Kawhia and the Ngati Mutunga explains the long, continuous, and close relationship among these three tribes.
Ngātiwai or Ngāti Wai is a Māori iwi of the east coast of the Northland Region of New Zealand. Its historical tribal area or rohe stretched from Cape Brett in the north to Takatū Point on Tawharanui Peninsula in the south and out to Great Barrier Island, the Poor Knights Islands and other offshore islands.
In Māori tradition, Tōtara-i-kāria was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand. The waka is linked to the Bay of Plenty region. Legend has it that this was the waka taken by the priest Ngātoroirangi back to Hawaiki; upon arrival, he fought a battle at Ihumotomotokia and Whatatiri, against the chief Manaia. He defeated Manaia, and then returned to his pā (fortification) in New Zealand, on Mōtītī Island in the Bay of Plenty. However, the survivors of Manaia's tribe soon arrived in a fleet of canoes to seek revenge. Ngātoroirangi chanted incantations whipping up a storm that destroyed them.
Marutūāhu, Marutūahu or Marutuahu is a collective of the Māori iwi (tribe) of the Hauraki region of New Zealand. The confederation is made up of the tribes of Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Whanaunga and Ngāti Rongoū.
Te Tau Ihu Māori are a group of Māori iwi in the upper South Island of New Zealand. It includes Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri and Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Toa, and Ngāti Tama and Te Atiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui.
Kahuitara was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled New Zealand in Māori tradition.
References
- R.D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989), 25.
