Abstract
New Zealand’s Polynesian Maori had no written history, though many legends were recorded in stylised wood carvings in meeting houses, fortifications and other structures. A myth widespread among Polynesian peoples, including New Zealand Maori, relates to a man named Maui, to whom legend attributes many miraculous feats. One of these myths tells how Maui was in a canoe, fishing with his brothers. They would not let him use their gear, but Maui happened to have his grandmother’s jawbone with him, which he used as a hook. He hooked a tremendous fish, and when he hauled it to the surface it became the North Island of New Zealand, still known to Maori as Te Ika a Maui (Maui’s fish). Some traditions say that the canoe was stranded on a mountain, but later slid into the sea, to become New Zealand’s South Island (Buck 1949).
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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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McDowall, R.M. (1994). Fish imagery in art 70: Polynesian Maori carving of the Maui myth. In: Balon, E.K., Bruton, M.N., Noakes, D.L.G. (eds) Women in ichthyology: an anthology in honour of ET, Ro and Genie. Developments in environmental biology of fishes 15, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0199-8_25
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0199-8_25
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