Key Info

- From the Tongan persepective, Māui is a god who helps humanity

- He is known for showing humans how to cook and carrying the heavens on his shoulders

Brief Bio

In the Tongan version of his tales, Māui drew up the Tongan Islands from the deep: first appeared Lofanga and the other Haʻapai Islands, and finally Vavaʻu. Māui then dwelt in Tonga. Māui had two sons: the eldest, Māui-Atalanga, and the younger Māui-Kisikisi. The latter discovered the secret of fire, and taught people the art of cooking food: he made fire dwell in certain kinds of wood. Māui-Motu'a bears the earth on his shoulders, and when he nods in sleep it causes earthquakes, therefore the people have to stamp on the ground to awaken him. Hikule'o, the deity presiding over Pulotu, the underworld, is the youngest son of Māui-Motu'a. Houma is pointed out as the spot where Māui's fish hook caught.

Other sources say that in Tonga there were three Māui brothers: Māui-motuʻa (old Māui), Māui-Atalanga, and Māui-Kisikisi (dragonfly Māui), the last one being the trickster. He also got the name Māui-fusi-fonua (Māui land puller) when he begged for the magic fishhook from the old fisherman Tongafusifonua, who lived in Manuka (located to the east on the island of Tonga). Tongafusifonua allowed him to take the fishhook, under the condition that he could find it in his collection of countless hooks. But his wife, Tavatava, betrayed the secret, allowing Māui to pick the right hook. And so he was able to fish up the coral islands from the bottom of the ocean (Volcanic islands are supposed to have fallen from the heavens).