In the mythology of some Māori tribal groups, Urutonga is the wife of Hemā, and the mother of Tāwhaki and Kahiri. [1]
Hema was killed by the Ponaturi, and Urutonga and her sons, Tāwhaki and Karihi, killed them all but two in revenge. They tricked the Ponaturi into entering a house, and then locked them in, claiming there was still time before the dawn. They then opened the door after the sun was up, the Ponaturi died at the exposure to sunlight.
In Māori mythology, Tāwhaki is a semi-supernatural being associated with lightning and thunder.
In Māori mythology, Tangotango was a celestial woman who fell in love with the great hero Tāwhaki and came to earth to become his wife. After bearing him a daughter, Arahuta, they quarreled and she returned to heaven. Tāwhaki and his brother set out on a great adventure to find her.
Karihi is a brother or cousin of Tāwhaki in Māori mythology.
In Māori mythology Hinepiripiri occurs in some versions of the legend of Tāwhaki as Tāwhaki's wife and the mother of Wahieroa.
In Māori mythology, the Ponaturi are a group of hostile creatures (goblins) who live in a land beneath the sea by day, returning to shore each evening to sleep. They dread daylight, which is fatal to them. They appear in a number of stories, including:
Tongahiti is one of Tāwhaki's enemies in a Māori tradition which White (1887-1891) attributes to the Ngati Hau iwi. In this tale, Tāwhaki blocks up all the chinks in the house of his enemies, a house of which his grandmother Whaitiri is the doorkeeper. Before sunset, the enemies - who are like small birds - flock into the house in great numbers. Tongahiti is among them. When morning comes, the enemies sleep on, because no light can enter the house. Tongahiti makes a remark about the length of the night, and suggests that Whaitiri may be deceiving them. Tāwhaki now lets the light in, and then kills all the creatures except Tongahiti, who manages to escape through a small hole he pierces through the base of one of the posts at the back of the house.
Whaitiri is a female atua and personification of thunder in Māori mythology. She is the grandmother of Tāwhaki and Karihi. Whaitiri is the granddaughter of Te Kanapu, son of Te Uira, both of whom are personified forms of lightning. Another more primary atua of thunder, a male, is Tāwhirimātea.
Kaha'i is a handsome Polynesian demigod whose exploits were popular in many Polynesian mythologies.
In Māori mythology, Matuku-tangotango (Matuku) is an ogre who kills Wahieroa the son of Tāwhaki. In some versions, Matuku lives in a cave called Putawarenuku. Rātā, the son of Wahieroa, sets off to avenge his murdered father, and arrives at last at Matuku's village. He hears from Matuku's servant that at the new moon his master can be killed at the pool where he washes his face and hair. When the new moon has come, Rātā waits until the ogre comes out of his cave and is leaning over with his head in the pool. He grabs him by the hair and kills him. Rātā then sets off to rescue his father's bones from the Ponaturi. A South Island version names the islands where Matuku lives as Puorunuku and Puororangi and also states that Rātā nooses Matuku as he comes out of his lair to perform certain rituals.
In Māori mythology, Wahieroa is a son of Tāwhaki, and father of Rātā.
Hemā is a figure in both Hawaiian and Maori mythology.
The Ituri conflict is an ongoing conflict between the agriculturalist Lendu and pastoralist Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). While the two groups had fought since as early as 1972, the name 'Ituri conflict' refers to the period of intense violence between 1999 and 2003. Armed conflict continues to the present day.
In Māori mythology, Punga is a supernatural being, the ancestor of sharks, lizards, rays, and all deformed, ugly things. All ugly and strange animals are Punga's children. Hence the saying Te aitanga a Punga used to describe an ugly person.
Matakerepō, in a Māori story of the Arawa tribe of Rotorua, is a female ancestor of the hero Tāwhaki. She is an example of the 'female helper', a recurrent element in Polynesian myth and legend, who assists Tāwhaki to attain his quest of finding his wife and daughter, from whom he is estranged. Matakerepō is a somewhat threatening figure who must be placated.
In Māori mythology, Matoka-rau-tāwhiri is a wife of Wahieroa, and mother of Rātā.
In Māori mythology, accounts vary somewhat as to the ancestry of Rātā. Usually he is a grandson of Tāwhaki and son of Wahieroa. Wahieroa is treacherously killed by Matuku-tangotango, an ogre. Rātā sets out to avenge the murder, travelling to the home of Matuku, where a servant of the ogre tells him that Matuku comes out to devour people each new moon, and that he can be killed at the pool where he washes his face and hair. Rātā waits till the ogre comes out and is leaning over with his head in the pool. He grabs him by the hair and kills him. Matuku's bones are used to make spears for hunting birds.
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 fantastic tales 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.
Hema may refer to: