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Legends of tohorā

In this article, expert Bradford Haami explores some of the cultural stories, beliefs, and significant places that connect Māori to whales.
A photo taken at dawn over a harbour. In the foreground is a pile of rocks with a statue atop it, of a women with her arms behind and hair flowing behind. In the background is a distant island, vaguely in the shape of a whale.
© Whakatāne harbour, by Maraea via Pixabay. CC0
Maori people had benign contact with whales for more than a thousand years of coastal and ocean-going travel before European colonisation. All whales, but especially sperm whales, were regarded as chiefly figures of the ocean realm. High ranking Maori were often praised and revered by being likened to whales and indeed, some iwi tribes acknowledge that their descent comes down from ancestor whales.
Whales also served as guardians during my peoples’ long voyages of discovery throughout Polynesia. My own tribe, from the great canoe Takitimu, hold that a guardian whale accompanied my ancestors to our new homeland in Aotearoa …. The Guardian remained with us and became the revered ancestor of my people.

– Sandra Lee, ex-Minister of Conservation/Associate Minister of Māori Affairs of New Zealand, addressing the 52nd meeting of the International Whaling Commission, 2000.

This step is adapted from the work of Bradford Haami, “Te whānau puha – whales” for Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand, 2006. Used with permission.

Tribal knowledge of whales

Māori have a long association with whales. While whales provided food and utensils, they also feature in tribal traditions and were sometimes guardians on the ancestors’ canoe journeys to Aotearoa. Oral histories recall interactions between people and whales in tribal stories, carvings, specialised language and place names. There is also a wealth of tribal knowledge about whales.

Whale names

Names for the different species of whales vary from tribe to tribe. One of the old terms for whales was ‘ika moana’ – fish of the sea. They were part of the family known as ‘te whānau puha’ – the family of animals that expel air. While ‘tohorā’ (or tohoraha) is considered an all-embracing term for whales, it also refers to the southern right whale. Other names are:

  • Hakurā or iheihe – scamperdown whale
  • Miha pakake – a whale calf
  • Paikea – southern humpback whale, or a whale with a white belly and deep grooves along its length
  • Pakake – minke whale
  • Parāoa – sperm whale
  • Ūpokohue – blackfish or pilot whale.

Honorific names for whales or families of whales are Tūtarakauika, te Kauika Tangaroa, Wehengakāuki, Ruamano, Taniwha, and Tū-te-raki-hau-noa.

Whale place names and imagery

The whale has often been commemorated in place names. These include:

  • Moutohorā (captured whale), an island off the coast at Whakatāne (pictured at the top of this article)
  • Te Ara-a-Kewa (the path of the right whale), the name for Foveaux Strait
  • Te Ara-a-Paikea (the path of Paikea), a whale-shaped hill on the Māhia Peninsula
  • Whangaparāoa (bay of sperm whales) in Auckland and the East Cape
  • Te Waiū-o-Te-Tohorā (the breast milk of the whale) is the name of a spring of white water associated with hills around Welcome Bay and Pāpāmoa in the Tauranga area. The hills represent a family of whales (mother, father and baby) that lost their way. After drinking from a magical spring at Karikari, they were all transformed into the ranges in this region.

A children’s book, Ngā Maunga Tohorā (The Whale Mountains) telling this story, and teaching Māori kupu (words), is read by one of its authors Hinemarie Burton in this video from Tauranga City Libraries.

Whale origins

View through a sun-dappled forest clearing towards an enormous Kauri tree. Its tall white trunk is covered in a pale-coloured bark, heavily textured. It only bears branches at the very top. The largest known living kauri tree, known as Tāne Mahuta, in Waipoua Forest, Northland by Natalia Volna, itravelNZ, via Flickr. CC BY 2.0

There are many tribal versions of the origin of whales. Some say Tangaroa (god of the sea) is the ancestor of sea creatures, while others name Te Pūwhakahara, Takaaho and Tinirau as progenitors of whales. Another tradition cites Te Hāpuku as the main ancestor of whales, dolphins and seals as well as tree ferns, which are often known as ‘ngā ika ō te ngahere’ – the fish of the forest.

The story of the whale and the kauri places trees and whales in their environments. In this story, tohorā (the whale)’s ancestors originally lived on the land. The tohorā asked the kauri to return with him to the sea, but the kauri preferred the land. Tohorā then suggested they exchange skins, which they did. This is why the bark of the kauri is so thin, and as full of resin as the whale is of oil.

You can see a short video diving into this story and expanding on its meanings (and introducing some other things we’ll touch on in this course) here.

Both of these organisms are now vulnerable, victims of human industrialisation. These stories are being reinterpreted in the face of environmental loss, using indigenous values to seek a way forward.

Whales as kaitiaki (guides)

View from the shore to an intricately carved waka (Māori canoe) at a jetty. There is a bay surrounded by rolling green hills in the background. A man stands at the end of the jetty, turned away. Rows of white-tipped wooden hoe (paddle) rest upright in the waka. Tainui waka at Raglan, New Zealand 1992, by Phillip Capper via Flickr. CC BY 2.0

Many traditions mention that whales accompanied or guided the canoes on their journeys to Aotearoa (New Zealand). Waitaha followed his sister Hāhuru to New Zealand from Hawaiki, guided by the whale Tūtarakauika. They eventually landed at Ō-tara-muturangi, near Matatā.

The song ‘He oriori mō Tuteremoana’ describes a canoe, believed to be the Tākitimu, safely following in the wake of a pod of whales during a storm. Some of the whales are specifically named in this song. The tohunga (priest) on board the Tākitimu was Ruawharo. He possessed the mauri (life force) of whales, which he laid to rest at Māhia Peninsula to attract whales to the region.

Pane-iraira was a taniwha (water spirit), thought to be a whale, who calmed the waves for the journey of the Tainui canoe. Tohunga responsible for navigation exercised their powers during storms, appealing to sea creatures to escort the canoes and shield them from the fury of a storm. Often the tohunga would pull a hair from his head and throw it to the whale or taniwha as recognition of assistance. This tradition may have been prompted by the reported habit of toothed whales and dolphins presenting gifts of seaweed to each other.

There are similar stories around taniwha in the guise of dolphins acting as messengers, guides, and protectors to early Māori.

Rangatira (chiefs) and whales

Many sayings about whales allude to the aristocracy, conveying a deep respect for the animals. ‘Te kāhui parāoa’ – a gathering of sperm whales – indicates a group of chiefs. ‘He paenga pakake’ (beached whales) refers to fallen chiefs on a battlefield.

An old lithograph of a Māori man in profile. From the eyes downward his face is covered in tattoos of lines and spirals. Around his neck is a sperm whale tooth pendant on a plaited rope. It has been carved at the pointed tip with upward slanting eyes and the curve of a nose or mouth. His hair is in a topknot, with a bone comb set into it. The comb is flat with a rounded top edge with a spiral shape carved from it. Maori chief (No.13) by Sydney Parkinson, A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, 1773. CC0.

Whale resources

Beached whales provided meat, which was eaten fresh, hung to dry or cooked in a hāngī (earth oven). Sinew was used as cordage for things like fishing nets and ambergris was used for oral hygiene – as a kind of chewing gum. Various oils from the heads of whales can be used in rongoā (traditional Māori medicines). Milk was taken from a suckling mother, oil was used for polish and scent, and teeth were made into ornaments and jewellery such as the prized rei puta (whale-tooth neck ornament).

Whalebone, in particular the jawbones from the parāoa (sperm whale), was fashioned into weapons like patu, taiaha, tewhatewha, and hoeroa, and other objects like heru (combs), tokotoko (walking sticks), and hei tiki (neck ornaments). We will look more closely at these taonga (treasures) later this week.

Disputes over resources were common. At Whangaparāoa on the East Coast, Pou-mātangatanga of the Tauira tribe sought to claim a stranded parāoa. This was challenged by Taikehu from the Tainui canoe who had already fashioned a patu from the jawbone. This led Pou to relinquish his claim and shift to Maraenui. Kauaetangohia (extracted jawbone) is the name of an ancestor, a hapū (clan or descent group), and a marae that commemorate this incident.

In another dispute, when a pod of whales was stranded near Te Awanga in Hawke’s Bay, the chief Tamaariki arrived home to find that his son had not been given a share of the meat. He was offended and left the district.

A whale of a Trojan Horse

The origin of the name for the Ngāti Kurī tribe of Muriwhenua is linked to the construction of a whale made of dog skins. This became a Trojan Horse, concealing 100 warriors as it appeared to lie beached on the coast, in front of an unsuspecting enemy village. The people left the safety of their pā to gather the valuable whale meat and were met with a major surprise.

This same ploy was used by the Ngāti Kahungunu warlord Taraia, who dressed his warriors in black cloaks and ordered them to lie on the beach in front of Heipipi pā to lure the enemy out. The people thought a pod of pilot whales had stranded, and streamed out of the pā, to their demise.

Whale riders

A black and white photo from the interior of a marae, looking out the front doors. The door is flanked with intricate Māori carvings and weaving. Above the door is a carving of a figure on the back of a humpback whale. A carving of Paikea, the ancestor of the people of Whāngārā, East Coast, who believe he came to New Zealand on the back of a whale. The carving is in the Poho-o-Rāwiri meeting house at Gisborne. Photograph by Mr Nicholson, January 1968, Gisborne. Archives New Zealand Reference: AAQT 6539 W3537 82 / A86854. CC BY 2.0

Whale riding is a common theme in Māori oral storytelling. It was made popular worldwide by the film Whale Rider, based on the Ngāti Porou tribe’s tradition of Paikea. According to the story, the ancestor Paikea was enticed on a fishing trip with others. During this, his jealous brother Ruatapu sank the canoe in an effort to drown them. However, Paikea called on the guardians of the sea to help him. A taniwha in the form of a whale was sent to take him to safety. He eventually landed at Aotearoa (New Zealand). A similar tradition, thought to be from the Waikato, is that of Waihuka who was also carried back to land on a whale, after being abandoned by his brother who left him to drown at sea.

Legendary ancestors may be carved onto wharenui (Māori gathering houses), as in the image above, to signify their importance. Paikea riding the whale is also carved onto the roof of Whitirēia marae, in the tiny East Coast community of Whāngārā.

Other famous whale riders are Te Tahi-o-te-rangi (an ancestor of the Mataatua tribes) and Tinirau (a legendary figure known throughout the Pacific). We will hear those stories next.

In the next step, we will watch the story of Tinirau and the whale, and learn how this legend inspired physical taonga (treasures), like carved pātaka (storehouses).

Further reading

Canoe traditions. In Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.

Navigating the Stars: Māori Creation Myths By Witi Ihimaera

Traditional Māori Legends by Warren Pohatu

To be Birthed in Water by Hana Pera Aoake

We begin floating in a womb, by Hana Pera Aoake

Across Species and Cultures: Whales, Humans, and Pacific Worlds edited by Ryan Tucker Jones and Angela Wanhalla, University of Hawai’i Press. Chapter 13: Heeding the Call of Paikea: A Whakapapa Approach to Whaling and Whale People in Aotearoa–New Zealand Billie Lythberg and Wayne Ngata

The story of the Takitimu waka, by Tupapa

Ruawharo, Kahungungu Marae

The history of of the Ngati Kahungungu of Wairoa

Ngati Rongomaiwahine – Important ancestors. Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

Beautiful te reo Māori waiata (song) that recounts a story of the Takitimu tohunga Ruawharo and the taniwha that accompanied their waka, performed by St Joseph Māori Girls College

Another waiata about Ruawharo’s story, composed by Tommy Taurima. This version is slightly different than the one above. English translation provided

Whale of a tale, Bay of Plenty Times

The Ngāti Kurī/Ngāi Tahu Relationship With Whales

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The Significance of Whales to Aotearoa New Zealand

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