Niue Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tong ...

an mythology, Huanaki is one of the five principal gods of the island. Along with

Fao The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

, Huanaki was one of the earliest settlers, who swam across from

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. A story is told that Huanaki, along with

Laga-iki Niuean mythology relates to some of the myths prevalent on the island of Niue, an Oceanic island country in free association with New Zealand. Although Niuean mythology reports a colonization before 500 AD, the island was settled by Polynesians from ...

Fakahoko In Niuean mythology, Fakahoko is one of the gods of the island. He is cited as one of the five original gods ( tupua) of the island who fled from the lost country of Fonuagalo. A story told is that Fao, along with Laga-iki, Fakahoko, Huanaki, and ...

, and

Lagi-atea Niuean mythology relates to some of the myths prevalent on the island of Niue, an Oceanic island country in free association with New Zealand. Although Niuean mythology reports a colonization before 500 AD, the island was settled by Polynesians from ...

, left the lost country (''Fonuagalo''), because they felt they had not been properly recognized at feasts. When they arrived in Niue, Fao was only able to place one of his feet on the ground. Huanaki completed Fao's work and the other three gods came to settle on the island. Another version of the story is that these five gods were lazy and did no work toward preparing feasts. When their parents had prepared a feast, they received no portion of it because they had done nothing to help in its preparation. When they continued to do nothing in preparing feasts, their parents continued withholding any portion of it from them. The five gods then searched from an island where they could live away from their parents. There is yet another local account by the people of

Avatele Avatele, formerly known as Oneonepata Matavaihala, is one of the fourteen villages of Niue, located on the southwest coast, with a population of 143 residents as of 2017. Geography Avatele Beach, the village's main sea track, stretches along the ...

, which says that the gods lived there underground and did not feed their children because they were lazy. Their children were angry enough to come to the earth's surface. First was Fao, who tried and failed to make the tides go out. Another god (perhaps Fakahoko) surfaced and also tried to send the tides out. When he also failed at this, Huanaki came up; he and Fao were successful in making the tides go out, producing waves on the ocean. Fakahoko, Huanaki, Lagaitea and Hatulia were the names of the children of the gods who also stopped living under the earth. When the female gods came to the earth's surface, they were eaten by a

conger ''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during t ...

, which Hatulia then chopped into four pieces. Only in the Avatele version of the story are the female gods eaten by the eel; in all other accounts they simply came to the surface, and only in the Avatele version are the gods said to come from within the earth instead of Fonuagalo.

References

{{Niue mythology Polynesian gods Niuean deities Tupua