- MD
Sidestep: Te Uenuku
This post involves an interesting piece of early NZ history. Below are pictures of a famous carving from the museum at Te Awamutu. Tainui call the carving Te Uenuku and it was a show piece of the famous Te Maori exhibition to the USA in 1984. The name means rainbow, but the carving resembles nothing like a rainbow. This is because it was carved to hold a stone holding the spirit of Uenuku who was turned into a rainbow (see below). Whatever the carving design actually represents the design will represent something from their original homeland, wherever that really was. What other Pacific cultures had designs close to this carving?
The legend of Uenuku:
Uenuku was out hunting and saw a mist maiden, fell in love and had a child with her. But no one else could see her and therefore he was ridiculed. Finally he was convinced to block the windows and door when she came to him one night so she couldn’t see the sun in the morning, then he could prove she existed. She felt tricked and left him and Uenuku wandered the world searching for his beloved wife and daughter. At last, seeing him lonely and bent with age, Rangi the Skyfather took pity on him and changed him into a rainbow so that he could join his family in the sky.
Rangi is a Maori God. So I'm not sure how Rangi could be mentioned accurately when his name does not exist in their original homeland. It could be that successive generations of Tainui absorbed local myths from those already here. This happens all over the world when new races join old ones. It could also be that all the canoe arrivals had created a different mythology and religion and that is why they all left their homelands - forced out like the pilgrims from England who went to America. It's just a crazy suggestion, but it could easily be the case in the light of the Rangi error Maori make in regard to this item from another land altogether.
But why is Uenuku's spirit in a rock? It is possible that someone saw the rainbow in line with a rock and took that to be Uenuku and brought that stone with them when they left their homeland, or they incanted his spirit into a pre-selected or pre-carved stone.
According to Tainui korero, Te Uenuku (the pou) was carved by the people on the Tainui waka to house the stone containing the spirit of Uenuku, the rainbow god, which they had brought with them from Hawaiki. Some say the stone is lost, others say it is hidden away and no photographs can be taken of it. I believe is is lost. They should thoroughly search the location the pou was found.
Interestingly, those who say the Moriori never were on NZ also have a god called Ouenuku. The name in 'Maori' means 'footprint of the rainbow'. Interesting in that it is a Maori name as well as a Moriori name because this proves the MoriOri were in NZ and were chased out, not sailed direct to the Chathams as many claim. Evidence suggests this occurred before 1400 which would be about right based on advancement...or lack of it. If they came from the same place (Hawaiiki) with the same God, surely they would have arrived togther. However, the Moriori were here before Maori. Te Uenuku then, may not be a Tainui treasure at all, but belong to someone else and it was taken up as the God of Tainui when the arrived, who through assimilation learned of the local lore and customs before psuhing them out as so many tribes did to each other over time.
The sacred carving above was lost in battle around 1780, and remained missing until 1906 when a Waikato farmer was draining a swamp for the land. Now, the Te Awamutu Museum holds Te Uenuku. Traditional information suggests that Uenuku was carved around 1200-1500AD and his style bears a marked resemblance to Hawaiian form. The wood is Totara and therefore was definitely carved here in this land.
