Mataora’s Visit to Hawaiki

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE

Country or Culture: Polynesia

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

The princess of the underworld, Niwareka, comes up from the underworld, Hawaiki, with a group of other tūrehu (fairies or spirits). When they arrive at the above world, they come across a young man named Mataora. Niwareka and the other women begin making fun of him, for his appearance is different from theirs. He then offers to bring them some food. While the women eat, Mataora spots Niwareka, who is the most beautiful among them. When the meal is finished, Mataora dances his ceremonial haka (dance) before them. Then the women dance, and Mataora asks for Niwareka’s hand in marriage. The two wed and live a long time together.

One day, Mataora beats Niwareka in a jealous rage. She flees back to the underworld, where her father, the chieftain Uetonga, lives. Mataora pursues her and eventually comes to Pou-tere-rangi, the entrance of Hawaiki, where a guardian named Te Kūwatawata resides. His house has four doors from which the winds come forth before spreading over the sky father and earth mother. The dead return to one of these four particular doors every quarter of the year. After reaching this house, Mataora begins descending down into Hawaiki.

He reaches a shed in the village of Uetonga where many people were congregated. There, he finds Uetonga tattooing someone using a method very different from the one used in the above world. Mataora calls out to Uetonga, telling him that he is tattooing incorrectly. The chieftain explains that carving the skin is the customary way of tattooing in the underworld while aboveground they simply paint the skin. To prove himself, Uetonga rubs the tattoo off Mataora’s face and the crowd bursts out with laughter. Ashamed, Mataora asks the chieftain to give him a proper tattoo. Uetonga agrees and calls for his artists to outline the pattern on Mataora’s face. Uetonga takes his chisel and begins tattooing the young man, who starts to sing out to Niwareka when the pain becomes too great.

Ue-kuru, the younger sister of Niwareka, hears Mataora’s song and flees to tell her sister. Niwareka is busy weaving a cloak called “Te Raupapanui” for her father. Ue-kuru tells Niwareka of the stranger singing her name, and the princess runs to see if it was her husband. When she sees that it is Mataora, she instructs her younger sister to lead him to the village. There, he finds Niwareka and her tūrehu in an areas spread with mats. He sits before her. At first, the tūrehu do not recognize him with the new face tattoos. The couple reunite and dwell in the underworld for some time.

One day, Mataora asks Niwareka if she would return with him to the world above. Niwareka and her family try to convince him to stay, believing the upperworld to be evil. After much debate, Uetonga consents for his daughter to go to the upperworld if the two promise to come back and adopt the ways of the underworld. So the couple returns to the world above, but as they pass through Te Kūwatawata’s guardhouse, they do not give him a gift of one of Niwareka’s cloaks. In response, Te Kūwatawata tells them that the gates of the underworld are now closed to the living and ever after only souls would be allowed through. Since he is no longer allowed back in the underworld, Mataora uses his tattoos as a reminder that he should avoid the evils of the world above. This is how Mataora and Niwareka brought the art of tattooing and cloak weaving to the world.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Hades depicted in the mythology of the Māori people of Polynesia differs from the concept of the underworld found in other cultures. In Māori mythology, the underworld, known as Hawaiki, is considered the original home of the Māori. According to tradition, Māori Polynesians traveled the seas in open canoes from Hawaiki to the islands of the Pacific Ocean, including New Zealand. Hawaiki is of great importance to Māori tradition as it is considered the home of the gods, including the supreme being, Io, who created the entire world and its first people. The Māori believe that the where people are born in the underworld and that they return after death. In Māori culture, Hawaiki is a symbol of the life cycle.

“Mataora’s Visit to Hades” tells of the origin of tattooing, called toi moko by the Māori. The Māori hold tattoos to be sacred art. Tattoos are used to tell a person’s history and achievements. Because the Māori hold the head as the most sacred part of the body, facial tattoos are common. In the distant past, women were traditionally given tattoos on their chin, lips, and shoulders, while men’s faces and buttocks were tattooed to signify rank. Tattoo art was also used to make warriors attractive to women. Commonly, the left side of the face was designated for the father’s history and the right would tell the mother’s history. High birth was sometimes required before a facial tattoo could be given.

Tattooing was also traditionally used as a rite of passage for adolescents entering adulthood. Due to the sacred nature of tattooing, the act was highly ritualized. Those soon receiving tattoos were prohibited from engaging in sexual intercourse and eating solid foods. Tattooing was done using a sharpened bone chisel and a sooty pigment typically made from Kauri gum or burnt caterpillars. These bone chisels have been found in archaeological sites of different ages in New Zealand, including some Eastern Polynesian sites.

The facial tattoo process was very time consuming and painful. Oftentimes, a tattoo artist would examine a person’s bone structure before beginning. Since the person could not consume any solid foods and nothing could come in contact with the face while the tattoos were healing, liquid food and water was drained through a wooden funnel into the mouth.

Many contemporary Māori tattoo artists still practice the traditional art, while combining it with modern designs. While most Māori tattoo artists in New Zealand now use modern tattooing equipment and technology, some still practice with bone chisels out of admiration and respect for the traditional art.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barlow, Cleve. Tikanga Whakaaro: Key Concepts in Maori Culture. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991. Print.

Māori Dictionary. John C. Moorfield, 2013. Web. 17 July 2013.

Reed, A. W. Maori Myths & Legendary Tales. London: New Holland, 1999. Print.

“The Story of Niwareka and Mataora.” Te Ao Hou Mar. 1965: 17–19. Print.

Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia. Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.

Whatahoro, H. T. “Mataora’s Visit to Hades: The Origin of Tattooing.” The Lore of Whare-Wānanga. Trans. S. Percy Smith. New Plymouth: Avery, 1913. 182–93. Print.

Whitmore, Robbie. “The Tattoo (Ta Moko).” The Maori. New Zealand in History, 2008. Web. 17 July 2013.