Back to the Kiwi Roots

Not really knowing what story to tackle I decided to read through some of my Myths and Legends book as I have a large collection of these and those sorts of stories don't often have a large cast of characters.  I found a couple of interesting Scottish ones but still wasn't quite sure.  I then had a look through my book of Maori Myths and Legends and very quickly found one that I fell in love with.  It was the story of how the Rainbow God Uenuku became a God. 

Uenuku was walking hunting in the bush when he came upon two maidens: Hinepukohurangi, the Mist Girl and her sister Hinewai, the rainy mist girl. Uenuku immediately fell in love with Hinepukohurangi and he asked her to leave with him.  As she too had fallen in love with him she agreed but said she would have to leave him every morning as she was made of mist. 
Hinepukohurangi left with Uenuku and they were secretly married in the bush.  When morning came Hinewai hame to the door and took Hinepukohurangi with her before the sun came up. 
Uenuku was very proud of his new wife and told the women of the village about her.  Days went by and the village women grew to doubt Uenuku's tale of his wife as they never saw her.
One day, to prove the women of the village wrong, Uenuku filled all of the gaps that let in light in his house.  Hinepukohurangi arrived when the sun had set as every other evening.  As the sun started to come up Hinepukohurangi did not notice as there was still an artificial night within Uenuku's house.  Hinewai came to collect her sister but Hinepukohurangi did not believe that the sun had come up and stayed lying by her husband.  Hinewai left quickly and as the birds started to sing Hinepukohurangi knew there was something wrong.  She left the house and saw it was full daylight.  All the villagers saw her standing there in her full amazing beauty.  She climbed to the top of the house and as the sun touched her she evaporated into the sky. 
Uekuku was distraught and he set off far across the land in search of his wife.  He travelled for many years without trace of her and one day when he had comepletly worn down he died.  The Gods of the Sky took pity on Uenuku and took them up into their embrace.  As their gift they transformed him into a rainbow so that when Hinepukohurangi rose up as mist in the morning Uenuku could surround her by his beautiful colours.

 There do seem to be variations on the story, sometimes it doesn't feature the sister Hinewai and sometimes there is also a child taken up into the mists.  I decided to just stick to the original version that I read in my book. 

I had a look to see how many existing pictures there were based around this myth and there really weren't many at all which I was quite pleased with.  Interestingly one the oldest Maori artefacts is actually a statue in reference to him.

I found an image of Uenuku...

...and a few of Hinepukohurangi...

I am really happy with this story and glad to finally be working on a project with a connection to my New Zealand background.

After having picked this story I did some visual research on Maori culture and New Zealand Nature.  I'll just post all the pics so you can get a good general overview. 

Nature:

 

Carving:

 

 

Weaving:

 

Fashion and Artefacts:

 

 Tradition:

 

 Body Art:

 

Paintings by Charles Frederick Goldie:

 Well that was quite a few... I'm sure I've got more floating around but that's enough to give a general idea.