Murirangawhenua- Polynesian FigureMortal"Ancestress of Māui"

The Jawbone

Murirangawhenua was an ancestress of Māui, identified in George Grey's account as his grandmother. Māui sought her out because he needed a weapon no ordinary material could provide. She gave him her own jawbone. In Māori tradition, the jawbone of an ancestor carried their accumulated mana, and Murirangawhenua's bone held the power of Māui's entire lineage.

Grey recorded that Māui received it as a gift. John White's version has him taking it from her remains after death. Either way, the bone passed from the dead to the living, and Māui carried it into every exploit that followed.

The Sun and the Fish

The sun crossed the sky too fast. People could not finish their work before dark. Māui took the jawbone and waited at the edge of the world where the sun rose. When it climbed above the horizon, he struck it. He beat the sun until it agreed to move slowly, and the days grew long enough for human life.

Then he shaped the jawbone into a fishhook. He sailed out past the fishing grounds of his brothers, baited the hook with his own blood, and cast it deep. What he pulled up was not a fish but land: Te Ika a Māui, the Fish of Māui, which is the North Island of New Zealand. The jawbone of his ancestress had hauled new earth from the ocean floor.