Whaitiri is a female

atua Atua are the gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori mythology, Māori or the Hawaiian religion, Hawaiians (see also ); the Polynesian languages, Polynesian word literally means "power" or "strength" and so the concept is s ...

and personification of

thunder Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending upon the distance from and nature of the lightning, it can range from a long, low rumble to a sudden, loud crack. The sudden increase in temperature and hence pressure caused by the lightning pr ...

Māori mythology 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 pr ...

. She is the grandmother of

Tāwhaki In Māori mythology, Tāwhaki is a semi-supernatural being associated with lightning and thunder. Genealogy The genealogy of Tāwhaki varies somewhat in different accounts. In general, Tāwhaki is a grandson of Whaitiri, a cannibalistic goddess wh ...

and Karihi. Whaitiri is the granddaughter of Te Kanapu, son of

Te Uira Te Uira is an who personifies lightning in Māori mythology. Te Uira's child Te Kanapu, grandparent of Whaitiri, is also a personification of lightning. See also * Tāwhaki * Tāwhirimātea References

Māori gods Thunder gods { ...

, both of whom are personified forms of

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

(Reed 1963:158). Another more primary atua of thunder, a male, is

Tāwhirimātea In Māori mythology, Tāwhirimātea (or Tāwhiri) is the god of weather, including thunder and lightning, wind, clouds and storms. He is a son of Papatūānuku (earth mother) and Ranginui ( sky father). Tawhirimatea is the second oldest of 7 child ...

Marries Kaitangata

Whaitiri is a fearsome figure, fond of

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

. When she hears of a mortal named Kaitangata (

man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

-eater), she is certain he will make a fine husband for her. She comes down to

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

and marries him, but is disappointed to learn that he is a gentle person, nothing like his name suggests. Whaitiri kills her favourite slave, Anonokia, takes out her

heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide t ...

and

liver The liver is a major Organ (anatomy), organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for ...

, and offers them to Kaitangata as a sign of her affection. He is horrified at the grisly offering (Reed 1963:158-159). Kaitangata is a hard worker, spending a lot of time

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

ing to feed his family. Unfortunately, he has never learned how to make hooks with a barb, and so most of his fish escape. Whaitiri gives him a barbed hook, and he catches a grouper, which she offers to the gods. Whaitiri quickly tires of a diet of fish, so when her husband is away fishing, she takes a net and catches two of her husband's relatives, Tupeke-ti and Tupeke-ta. When Kaitangata returns, she asks him to perform the incantations that are used when human flesh is offered to the gods. He does not know the chants, so she tries to perform them herself, not willing to confess that she is ignorant of the correct words to use. She mumbles nonsense words, before cooking the bodies, cutting them up and gorging herself on the flesh, to the disgust of the villagers. Only the

bone A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provid ...

s are left (Reed 1963:158-9). Later, Kaitangata uses the bones to make barbed hooks, and goes fishing. He catches grouper, and gives them to Whaitiri. He does not tell her that he used hooks made from the bones of Tupeke-ti and Tupeke-ta. She eats the fish, and because the fish is infused with the ''tapu'' (sacredness) from the bodies of the two men, Whaitiri gradually begins to go blind. At first she is mystified at the reason for this, but eventually she is visited by a woman from the underworld who tells her what has happened (Reed 1963:159).

Returns to the sky

One day, Whaitiri overhears her husband describe her to two strangers. She is offended when she hears him say that his wife's

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...

is like the

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...

, and her heart is as cold as

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

. On another occasion, she is ashamed when Kaitangata complains that their children are dirty. She explains to her husband that she is unable to wash her children because she is a sacred being from the

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

s, and she tells him for the first time that her

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...

is thunder. She prepares to return to her true home in the heavens, and foretells that her children will follow her one day. She departs in a

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...

, leaving her children, one of whom is Hemā (Reed 1963:159-160).

Found by her grandsons

This is fulfilled when Tāwhaki and Karihi, Hemā's sons, set off to climb up to the

sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

. At the foot of the ascent they find their grandmother, Whaitiri, now blind, who sits continually counting the tubers of

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...

that are her only food. The brothers tease her by snatching them away, one by one, and upsetting her count. Eventually, they reveal themselves to her and restore her sight. In return, she gives them advice about how best to make the climb into the sky. Karihi tries first, but makes the error of climbing up the ''aka taepa'', or hanging vine. He is blown violently around by the winds of heaven, and falls to his death. Tāwhaki climbs by the ''aka matua'', or parent

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

, recites the right incantations, and reaches the highest of the 10 heavens. There he learns many spells from Tama-i-waho, and marries a woman named Hāpai, or as others say, Maikuku-makaka. They have a son, and according to some versions of the story it is this child who is named

Wahieroa In Māori mythology, Wahieroa is a son of Tāwhaki, and father of Rātā. Tāwhaki was attacked and left for dead by two of his brothers-in-law, jealous that their wives preferred the handsome Tāwhaki to them. He was nursed back to health by hi ...

(Biggs 1966:450).

Names and epithets

*Waitiri (thunder, thundering water, dialectal) *Whaitiri (thunder) *Whaitiri-mātakataka (crashing thunder) *Waitiri Station, a large Central Otago New Zealand high country

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

. Named after the thundering waters of the

Kawarau River The Kawarau River is a river in the South Island of New Zealand. It drains Lake Wakatipu in northwestern Otago via the lake's Frankton Arm. The river flows generally eastwards for about and passes through the steep Kawarau Gorge until it join ...

. Waitiri Station is the major ranch of the Kawarau Gorge and runs from the Bungy Bridge to the Roaring Meg on SH6. It is a merino sheep station and is run in conjunction with Eastburn Station. * Waitiri Run (Citroen Rapids) A Grade IV at less than and Grade V over {{convert, 11000, cuft/s, m3/s. Length 2 miles (3 km) BIG water, technically simple but intimidating. Waitiri Station provides put and exit access.

References

* B.G. Biggs, 'Maori Myths and Traditions' in A. H. McLintock (editor), ''Encyclopaedia of New Zealand'', 3 Volumes. (Government Printer: Wellington), 1966, II:447-454. * A.W. Reed, ''Treasury of Maori Folklore'' (A.H. & A.W. Reed:Wellington), 1963. * A. Cook, 'The Gibbston Story' Māori goddesses Sky and weather goddesses Thunder goddesses Mythological anthropophages