Matuatonga is a Māori stone sculpture on Mokoia Island, Lake Rotorua, New Zealand, which is a mauri (relic) or whakapoko (guardian statue) and belongs to Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Rangiteaorere, and other tribes of Te Arawa.[1] It is the most famous atua kumara (agricultural god) and was traditionally involved in rituals connected to the sowing of the annual kumara (sweet potato) crop. The sculpture has a male figure carved on each side, one representing Matuatonga, god of growth, and the other Matuatehe, god of decay. According to some traditions, Matuatonga was brought to New Zealand from Hawaiki ca. 1350. It was buried in the 1820s and exhumed in 1866, at which point a smaller sculpture was given to Governor George Grey and deposited in the Auckland Museum. Some sources claim that this smaller sculpture is the "true" Matuatonga and that the one on Mokoia today is only a replica.