Taranga and Makea-tutara are the parents of Maui-tikitiki-a-Taranga and his four elder brothers — Māui-taha, Māui-roto, Māui-pae, and Māui-waho — as well as their sister Hinauri in Maori tradition. Taranga cast the premature Maui into the sea wrapped in her topknot, where ocean spirits nursed him back to life.
Hina and Akalana are Maui's parents in Hawaiian tradition, where Hina is identified as a mortal woman rather than the moon goddess of other Polynesian cycles.
⚠ This Hawaiian parentage contradicts the Maori tradition where Taranga and Makea-tutara are Maui's parents. Beckwith (1940) discusses regional variation in Maui's genealogy across Polynesia.
Hina is Maui's wife across many Polynesian traditions — the moon goddess paired with the trickster demigod, a union attested from Tonga and Samoa to the Tuamotus and New Zealand.
⚠ Hawaiian traditions sometimes identify Hina as Maui's mother rather than wife. Beckwith (1940) discusses the conflation of multiple figures named Hina across Polynesian traditions.
Rohe was Maui's wife in Maori tradition, until Maui tricked her into swapping faces — she took his handsome visage and he her plain one, but the deception drove Rohe to flee in shame to the underworld, where she became a guardian of the dead.
⚠ Rohe appears primarily in Maori sources; her role as Maui's wife is not widely attested outside New Zealand traditions.
Hine-nui-te-po, the great goddess of death, crushed Maui between her obsidian thighs when he tried to crawl through her sleeping body to reverse the path of death — a fantail bird's laughter woke her, and humanity's last hope for immortality died with him.
Maui slew Tuna the great eel after Tuna pursued Hina, cutting off the creature's head and burying it in the earth, from which the first coconut tree sprouted — its husk bearing Tuna's eyes and mouth.
Maui fished Te Ika a Maui (the North Island of New Zealand) from the ocean depths using his enchanted fishhook made from Murirangawhenua's jawbone, pulling up the great island-fish from the sea.
Te Waka a Maui, the South Island of New Zealand, is identified as Maui's canoe from which he fished up the great island-fish Te Ika a Maui (the North Island).
Maui's four elder brothers — Māui-taha, Māui-roto, Māui-pae, and Māui-waho — crewed the canoe from which he fished up Te Ika a Maui, though they tried to stop him and later carved the great fish against his command.
Maui stretched his brother-in-law Irawaru into the first dog after a quarrel during a fishing trip, an act of spite that drove his sister Hinauri to throw herself into the sea in grief.
Maui tracked his mother Taranga to the entrance of the underworld and descended to find his father Makea-tutara, who revealed Maui's divine ancestry and taught him sacred incantations.
Maui pushed the sky higher above the earth, extending the separation of Rangi and Papa that Tāne had begun, giving humanity room to stand upright and walk freely.
Maui shapeshifted into a pigeon to spy on his mother Taranga as she descended each dawn into Pō, the underworld realm of the dead, discovering the entrance to the world below.
Maui tricked his wife Rohe into exchanging faces — he took her beauty and left her his ugly visage, driving Rohe to flee in shame to Pō, the underworld, where she became a figure among the dead.
Maui fished Te Ika a Maui from the ocean depths of Tangaroa, hauling the great island-fish from the sea god's domain with his enchanted fishhook made from Murirangawhenua's jawbone.
Maui captured the ʻalae mudhen and forced it to reveal the secret of making fire by rubbing sticks together, then rubbed its forehead raw as punishment, leaving the bird's head permanently red.
Maui climbed Haleakalā to ambush the sun as it rose from the great crater, beating it with ropes and his grandmother's jawbone until it agreed to slow its passage across the Hawaiian sky.
Maui wielded the Hei Matau, the enchanted fishhook fashioned from his grandmother Murirangawhenua's jawbone, to haul islands from the ocean depths and beat the sun into submission.
Maui wove ropes from Hina's sacred hair to snare the sun, enlisting his wife's power to bind Te Rā and slow its passage across the sky.
Maui tricked his grandmother Mahuika into surrendering the fire she kept in her fingernails, extinguishing each flame one by one until she hurled her last spark at him, scattering fire into the trees where humanity could find it.
Makea-tutara taught Maui the sacred karakia needed for his final quest, preparing his son with incantations to conquer death by entering the body of Hine-nui-te-pō.
Murirangawhenua, Maui's ancestress, gave him her own jawbone to serve as his weapon and fishhook — the enchanted bone with which he snared the sun and hauled islands from the sea.
When Maui hauled Te Ika a Maui from the sea, his brothers carved the great fish against his instructions, scarring the body of Papa with the mountains and valleys of the North Island.
The pīwakawaka accompanied Maui on his quest to conquer death, but its uncontrollable laughter woke Hine-nui-te-pō as Maui crawled through her body, dooming the trickster and sealing mortality for all humanity.
Maui ascended to the highest heaven to visit the star god Rehua, who fed him birds shaken from his matted hair — a visit marking Maui's boldness in seeking knowledge even from the celestial realms.
Taranga cast the premature Maui into the sea wrapped in her topknot, where ocean spirits nursed him to health. Years later, Maui returned and proved his identity to his mother, who wept and acknowledged her abandoned son.
Maui trapped the winds governed by Tāwhirimātea, capturing them one by one but releasing the west wind, which is why westerly winds still blow freely across New Zealand.
Maui snared Te Rā with ropes and beat the sun with Murirangawhenua's enchanted jawbone, forcing it to crawl slowly across the sky so that humans could finish their work by daylight.
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