Tainui (canoe)

For other uses, see Tainui (disambiguation).

Tainui
Great Māori migration waka
CommanderHoturoa
PriestRakatāura aka Hape
Landed atWhangaparaoa, Bay of Plenty, Kāwhia
IwiWaikato, Ngāti Maniapoto, Hauraki, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Marutūahu, Te Kawerau a Maki, Ngā Puhi and Ngāi Tai.
The korupe (carving over the window frame) at Mahina-a-Rangi meeting house at Turangawaewae Marae, Ngāruawāhia showing the Tainui canoe with its captain Hoturoa. Above the canoe is Te Hoe-o-Tainui, a famous paddle, the kete (basket) given to Whakaotirangi by a tohunga of Hawaiki, the bird Parakaraka (front) who was able to see in the dark, and another bird who warned of approaching daylight.[1] Photograph by Albert Percy Godber circa 1930s
Te Aurere, a modern reconstruction of a sea-going waka (canoe).
Te Haunui, a modern reconstruction of a sea-going waka (canoe).

Tainui was one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand approximately 800 years ago. It was commanded by the chief Hoturoa, who had decided to leave Hawaiki because over-population had led to famine and warfare.[2] The ship first reached New Zealand at Whangaparāoa in the Bay of Plenty and then skirted around the north coast of the North Island, finally landing at Kawhia in the western Waikato. The crew of the Tainui were the ancestors of the iwi that form the Tainui confederation.

  1. ^ "Maori meeting houses of the North Island" by John C M Cresswell, 1977 (p 31)
  2. ^ Jones & Biggs 2004, p. 16.