Aotea (canoe)

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In Māori tradition, Aotea is one of the canoes by which the Māori migrated to New Zealand. It was a great double canoe built by Toto from half of a great tree from Hawaiki, the other half being used for the canoe Matahourua. Toto gave Aotea to his daughter Rongorongo, wife of Turi (mythology). In strife with the chief Uenuku, Turi killed the chief's son and thereafter had to flee for New Zealand with 33 passengers. During the voyage, they stopped at Rangitahua^[1] and rescued cast-aways from the ship-wrecked Kurahaupō. They arrived at Aotea Harbour where they settled (Craig 1989:24).

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Rangitahua has been identified by some as Raoul Island in the Kermadec Islands, but Tregear is probably right when he says 'this island cannot now be identified' (Tregear 1891:57) since it implausible to believe that the Māori could have had any knowledge of the Kermadecs prior to European contact.

[edit] References

• R.D. Craig, Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology (Greenwood Press: New York, 1989).