In Māori tradition, ''Mānuka'' was one of the great ocean-going, voyaging canoes that was used in the migrations that settled 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 ...

Aotearoa ''Aotearoa'' () is the Māori name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference only to the North Island, with the whole country being referred to as ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' – where ''Te Ika-a-Māui'' means N ...

(New Zealand). The canoe is said to have travelled to the Polynesian homeland of

Hawaiki (also rendered as in the Cook Islands, Hawaiki in Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is, in Polynesian folklore, the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in man ...

to procure ''

kūmara The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of the ...

'', a type of sweet potato. Although the ''Mānuka'' returned with ''kūmara'', most accounts state that efforts to germinate and grow the

tubers Tubers are a type of enlarged structure that plants use as storage organs for nutrients, derived from stems or roots. Tubers help plants perennate (survive winter or dry months), provide energy and nutrients, and are a means of asexual reprod ...

it brought back ended in failure.

Origin story

In ''Ngā Waka o Neherā'' (2009), Jeff Evans writes that ''Mānuka'' was built from the same ''

tōtara ''Podocarpus totara'' (), commonly known as the , is a species of Podocarpus, podocarp tree endemism, endemic to New Zealand. It grows throughout the North Island, South Island and rarely on Stewart Island, Stewart Island / Rakiura in lowland, ...

'' tree as ''

Āraiteuru (also written ) was a canoe () of some of Ngāi Tahu's ancestors in Māori tradition. The canoe was conveyed to New Zealand by the north-east wind, carrying the chiefs Kirikirikatata, Aroarokaehe, Mauka Atua, Aoraki, Kakeroa, Te Horokoatu, ...

'', her sister ''waka'' (canoe). There was a dispute between Tua-kakariki, who first found the log on the beach, and Rongo-i-tua, a visitor who was eager to return home. To stake his claim, Rongo-i-tua had deposited his own excrement on the log while Tua-kakariki was away trying to assemble a work party to move it. Rongo-i-tua was awarded the log and got help from the Kahui-tipua people to build a canoe, promising to lead an expedition to bring back more dried ''kūmara''. The first canoe to be built was called ''Mānuka'' ('ma' = claim possession, 'nuka' = deceive) for the way he claimed the log. Once the canoe had been completed, the Kahui-tipua claimed it for their own and travelled to Hawaiki to acquire ''kūmara''. However, once they returned, they were unable to successfully cultivate it.

Explanations

One version of the story is that the ''kūmara'' failed to grow because the South Island was too cold. According to a

Murihiku Murihiku is a region of the South Island in New Zealand, as used by the Māori people. Traditionally it was used to describe the portion of the South Island below the Waitaki River, but now is mostly used to describe the province of Southland. ...

account, the crop rotted in the ground because ritual incantations were not performed. Other accounts state that the ''Mānuka'' had brought back only a "scraggly few" plants. Subsequent canoe voyages were tasked with bringing back the "better kinds" of ''kūmara''. In one such narrative, Rongo-i-tua, or Roko, set forth from Hawaiki on the ''

'', but was caught in a storm which pushed the ''kūmara'' overboard. After washing up on shore, the vegetables were petrified to form the

Moeraki Boulders The Moeraki Boulders (officially Moeraki Boulders / Kaihinaki) are unusually large spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave-cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden. They occur scattered either a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manuka Māori waka Māori mythology

Origin story

Explanations

See also

References