Varima-te-takere

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The goddess Varima-te-takere in her womb-like domain in Avaiki

In Cook Islands mythology, Varima-te-takere (goddess of the beginning) also called Vari, was the primordial mother of the gods and mortals. According to the creation myth, from her abode in Avaiki, the underworld, she pulled out from the right side of her body the sky god Vatea and from her left side she pulled out the earth goddess Papa.[1][2]

According to Gill, Vari, a female spirit, was admitted to the interior of Avaiki, a place described as resembling a vast hollow coconut shell. Her name in full, Vari-ma-te-takere, Gill translates as "The very beginning". The word vari, however, also means "mud", and, taken in conjunction with takere (canoe bottom or keel), the name literally means "The mud at the bottom"; suggesting the mud on the bottom of Avaiki. Vari is the mud of taro swamps and connotes potential plant growth. As applied to a female, it means menstruation and conveys a connection with the female womb and the origin of human growth.[3] Gill's account says, Vari created six children which were plucked from her flesh, Vatea (or Avatea), the father of gods and men; Tinirau, lord of the seas; Tango, lord of the birds; Tumu-te-ana-oa, echo of the rocks; Raka, lord of the winds; and Tu-metua, a beloved daughter whom Vari kept close to her in Avaiki.

References

  1. ↑ E.R. Tregear (1891). Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay. 
  2. ↑ Jukka Siikala (1991). ʻAkatokamanāva: myth, history and society in the Southern Cook Islands. pp. 50–53. 
  3. ↑ Te Rangi Hiroa (1934). Mangaian Society: Creation myth. Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin 122. p. 10. 
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