Rangiātea in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
culture and tradition, is considered to be simultaneously a physical place as well as a metaphysical place.
The physical Rangiātea is somewhere in the Pacific Islands, possibly
Ra'iātea
Raiatea or Ra'iatea ( Tahitian: ''Ra‘iātea'') is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The island is widely regarded as the "centre" of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the ...
Island in the
Society Islands
The Society Islands (french: Îles de la Société, officially ''Archipel de la Société;'' ty, Tōtaiete mā) are an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country of the ...
(also known as Tahiti), however, it is not totally certain.
Other possible locations are in the Cook Islands.
The
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
place is considered a font or source of learning and knowledge, especially knowledge handed down by gods, spirit-ancestors, or ancestors.
For example, the mythical god-ancestor
Tāne
In Māori mythology, Tāne (also called Tāne-mahuta, Tāne-nui-a-Rangi, and several other names) is the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, the sky father and the earth mother, who used to lie in a tight em ...
is said to have received the Baskets of Knowledge from the supreme being
Io. These baskets were suspended within a building named Rangiātea.
This position as a source of higher learning is reflected in the ancient exhortative proverb:
"Kia puta ai te ihu ki Rangiātea."
'So that your nose may arrive at Rangiātea.'
This expression encourages the individual to pursue study, practice, and mastery of skills to fulfil their potential.
Another well-known proverb referring to Rangiātea is this one, which reminds a person that we are all connected to a common source and thus remain united by a commonality:
"E kore au e ngaro, he kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea."
'I shall never be lost, I am a seed sown from Rangiātea.'
The metaphorical "seed" represents growth, development, and self-realization. Linking it to Rangiātea provides that this growth and development is founded in the attainment of higher learning, as handed down by ones' antecedents.
Rangiātea is closely related to, and possibly located within, the ancestral homeland of
Hawaiki
In Polynesian mythology, (also rendered as in Cook Islands Māori, in Samoan, in Tahitian, in Hawaiian) is the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories. ...
.
Several of the ancestral migratory Māori waka (ships) are said to have launched from Rangiātea, namely,
Aotea, and Matawhaorua(canoe). Other waka may have also originated from the same location, however, definitive origins are not entirely clear.
[{{Cite web, url=https://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/arrival-of-maori/, title=The arrival of Māori | 100% Pure New Zealand, website=www.newzealand.com]
References
Māori culture