167: What does the Kaitaia carving represent

The above carving (known as Tangonge) has been debated by many, including us. In the early days many believed it not to be of Maori design. Political pressure has changed that. Academics who never challenge things for fear of losing their grants or jobs just tow the line without question in spite of the growing evidence. For example, who else but us presented the Okehu Tribrach? Whe else but tangatawhenua16 presented the Pelorus stone eggs, or the Stone bowl from Tauranga, or the Te Uenuku type pou elsewhere than just the one in the Te Awamutu museum?

Anyway, most. like us beforehand, debated who made this. Few have asked what it is or who it represents. We will attempt to provide some possible answers to that.

First of all it is not a lintel for it is carved on both sides and unlike any other carving in existence in this land so far discovered. Secondly, it was buried, (like all precious items when an invasion is imminent). This was really deep, and had been secreted away for a very long time, so long in fact that there is no legend known about this item. None at all. Is that because it's not Maori as in Polynesian fleet Maori? We are surprised no one has manufactured a legend to be honest. Thirdly, finger and toe numbers do not match Maori carvings and this carving is supposed to have some faint spine indentations on it's rear and the only place this occurs elsewhere... is Rapanui (1) . Next we note the notching, not something you find in Polynesia but you do find in Melanesia (as shown on the Solomon Islands canoe in the Auckland Museum). Lastly, the figure is short and squat... almost simian like, ugly even! Even the way the figure holds the ends attached to the beasts is different from one hand to the other. Is there significance in that? There must be. When it was discovered, all Maori who saw it denied it was Maori for they had seen nothing like it, nor was there or still is, any legend attached to it. Now let us repeat that. At the time of discovery, all Maori who saw it denied it was Maori for they had seen nothing like it.

Tangonge represents one of two things... a man or a god. In it he controls, or holds back, some creatures. Some say they are crocodiles as suggested when it was first believed to be of Melanesian influence for those that had legends of the mythical beasts their ancestors spoke of. They could be, or they could be lizards, giant lizards considering their size compared to the man. Within Maori tradition there are references to several kinds of large reptiles which lived in the dense forests. Kumi and Ngarara are believed to be mythical, tuatara we now know to be a relict from the dinosaur era. But there is also the Kawekaweau? These were reported from widespread localities in the northern half of the North Island, particularly Northland. The animal was variously described as being amphibious, a ground-dweller, a tree-dweller, or even being able to fly! The most often repeated description was of a lizard about two feet long that was arboreal. But legend skews and embellishes as we all know it does.

So let's assume it is a lizard of some description (most likely). Lizards were feared as bringers of bad luck, and stories tell of hideous giant reptiles that captured women and married them. However reptiles were also seen as guardians. In New Zealand Mysteries, author Robyn Gosset refers to a sighting of a Kumi in 1898 by a Maori bushman. Its length was estimated at 1.5 metres. A sighting occurred in 1875 of a large lizard washed up in a flooded Hokianga river and the discovery of bones possibly from the animal that same year. The Kumi seems to be the largest of the mythical creatures and was both a huge and fabulous monster and it is this which these creatures most likely represent.

But who holds them back like dogs on chains? Our hypothesis below would seem to prove they are Kumi. Who could control a Kumi, Ngarara or Taniwha?

Lizards are associated with death. Ok, so who was the god of death? Who held back death in this carving? And why was their face so, well... ugly, compared to other carvings. Indeed it shows large lips and face of a Melanesian influence but we won't go there yet.

These mythical lizards are also borne out in head of the monster on the Awanui Slab found closeby to the Kaitaia carving and shown below... Not Polynesian at all are they! Not at all! And the head shown in the second photo has similarities with the Tangonge beasts. However, if you look at the top one with the humanoid creatures with the heads missing and scan to the left and look at the blowup below you'll see a creature with clawed feet attempting to get to another three fingered humanoid. The beast is likely a crocodile.. after all Melanesian know what a crocodile is and Polynesians don't have any fauna that they could model a beast from do they? The beast on the Awanui slab has similarities to the Kaitaia carving beast on the extremities.

Maori Mythology

In Māori mythology, Punga is a supernatural being, the ancestor of sharks, lizards, rays, and all deformed, ugly things. Punga's father was Tangaroa, atua of the sea. All ugly and strange animals are Punga's children. Hence the saying Te aitanga a Punga (the offspring of Punga) used to describe an ugly person. The figure holding back the lizards is an ugly person, that we can all agree, even if it is stylized.

Punga is a son of Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and when Tāwhirimātea (god of storms) made war against his brothers after they separated Rangi and Papa (sky and earth), the two sons of Punga, Ikatere and Tū-te-wehiwehi, had to flee for their lives. Ikatere fled to the sea and became an ancestor of fishes, while Tū-te-wehiwehi took refuge in the forest and fathered lizards. Tū-te-wehiwehi (also Tū-te-wanawana) therefore is the father of all reptiles in Māori mythology.

This figure then, is likely representative of Tū-te-wehiwehi or whatever name the early peoples of the north had for the Maori equivalent. Tū-te-wehiwehi is both 'ugly' and the father of all reptiles. THis carving then, shows his holding back the the Kumi or Ngarara. I can see this carving. atop a pou at the entrance or centre of a village to protect all the people therein.

There is one other possibility. It could be Whiro-te-tipua. In Māori mythology, Whiro-te-tipua is the lord of darkness and embodiment of all evil. He is the antithesis of Tāne as the light. He inhabits the underworld and is responsible for the ills of all people. Geckos, skinks, and tuatara were feared because of their spiritual association with Whiro. The word whiro is used to denote a person of evil character. A House of Knowledge, called Tai-whetuki, belonged to Whiro. His representative is the lizard. Seeing a lizard was deemed a very serious omen. It is the emissary of Whiro and the harbinger of death. When the gods decide to destroy man they do so by introducing a lizard into his body, and that creature devours his vitals and so causes death. So Whiro-te-tipua could be the figure in the Kaitaia carving, but having such a carving of such a man or god serves no purpose other than to create fear. It is therefore more likely to be Tū-te-wehiwehi

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Regardless of whether we are right or not, the questions remains. Who were the people that carved this? Why did they hide it by throwing it in the canals where it would eventually be covered in silt until rediscovered? And who attacked them and defeated them.

The First People

There are various stories concerning the first people living here before the arrival of the various waka collectively known as ‘The Great Fleet’.

As a rule, Hawaikian blood has been more thought of, and this has led many natives and many tribes unconsciously astray in figuring to themselves their ancient history. Maori were never ashamed of an aboriginal connection; far from it, but his other side seems always to be more present to him, more ingrained, so to speak, in his being and memory.

The first story about the earliest settlers comes from the story which began when the earth was covered with water and Maui hooked the earth and pulled it up. The sons of Maui took possession of the earth but Maui disappeared back to the place he had come from. In time Māui’s people increased and spread themselves in tribes and hapū over most of the North Island. By the time the canoes of the immigrants arrived from Hawaiki, the Māui nation inhabited the country.

Some traditions say the first inhabitants of Te Ika Roa a Māui, were the Tūrehu people - they are the people who literally ‘rose from the earth’; they were occupying the land when the later ancestors arrived here. Most of the earliest traditions are associated with the Tūrehu, although some go back to the age of stone, Te Ao Kōhatu, when inanimate objects possessed human qualities and the rocks and mountains moved around in the landscape. After the emergence of Te Ao Marama—the age of light—the Tūrehu, and the more secretive forest dwellers, the Patupaiarehe, occupied and modified the land.

Te Kawerau a Maki know the latter people as Tahurangi or Tutumaiao and Ngaurukehu. He was capable of many remarkable feats including moving Rangitoto Island from Karekare to its present position. The kāhui tipua, or guardian taniwha, lived alongside the Tūrehu and Tahurangi and were seen as both kindly and malevolent.

Muriwhenua are a group of northern Māori iwi, based in Te Hiku o te Ika, the northernmost part of New Zealand's North Island. It consists of five iwi, Ngāti Kurī, Ngāi Takoto, Te Pātū, Ngāti Kahu, Te Aupōuri and Te Rarawa.

But which carved this piece, it wasn't one of the so called fleet peoples that is certain. How do we know? They had just arrived from their mythical Hawaiki. Is there a single Polynesian piece anything like this carving? No, and for good reason, Maori didn't design or carve it - at least not those in the 'named' waka at least.

We maintain the design is old, much older than Maori admit and the only thing we can find in existence that is of any similarity to it is from Tahiti but made some 400 years after Tangonge was made.

(1) Above we said the carving had a spine, and traditional Maori carvings do not. Here is the photo of the spine and it's more defined that we first thought....