Maui

“Nor all a lie,
Nor all true,
Nor all fable,
Nor all known,
So much have story-tellers told
And fablers fabled to embellish their tales
That they have made all seem fable.”
– Wace

In the state of Hawai’i there is the island of Maui – popular for its breathtaking sceneries, romantic for honeymoons destinations, and practical for all things American convenience.  That the island is named after the demi-god Maui has been made known through mainstream television of late.  But lesser known is that the myths of Maui stretch across the Pacific ocean, from Mangareva in the southeast corner of Polynesia, to Hawai’i in the North, to New Zealand in the South, and northwest to Yap in western Micronesia.

In the Te Arawa lore, Taranga said, “Once, as I was wandering upon the seashore, I prematurely gave birth to one of my children.  I cut off the long tresses of my hair and bound him up in them and threw him into the foam of the sea.  After that he was found by his ancestor Tama-nui-ki-te-Rangi.”   Thus was the birth of Maui by Taranga, the abortive child, the offspring of a human mother and a ‘aumakua, an ancestor spirit, and therefore a demi-god.

Maui was gifted and naughty.  He helped humankind with his talents, but also caused plenty of mischief.  Turning himself into a bird, he spied on his parents in the Underworld.  He fought the God of Fire in the Underworld to receive the secret of making fire.  He snared the sun in order to lengthen daytime.  And he lifted the sky so that dark clouds and rain may not hang low for long.  Like the classic literature of King Arthur to Britain, the stories of Maui provide a glimpse into ancient Polynesian history and cultures.  And like King Arthur, Maui was very likely a real life hero who had become a legend through myths and lores. 

At first sighting of the approaching European ships, the Tahitians exclaimed, “The ships of Maui!  The outriggerless canoes of Maui have come!”  Christian missionaries who studied Hawaiian’s religions compared their god Kane to Jehovah, Kanaloa to the Holy Spirit, and Maui to Jesus.  Christianized Polynesian pastors would use the Maui myths to captivate the audience and drive home a Biblical text.  In response, Austral Islanders gave Maui’s mother, Taranga, a new name: the Chieftainess Eva.  By making Eva his mother and Maui the first man, they subtly acknowledged and displayed their understanding of Christian cosmogony.

Ancient Polynesians navigated vast stretches of ocean.  To find new land, they traveled immense distances by reading signals in the waves, the luminescence of plankton, the flights of birds, position of stars, and weather patterns.  In Polynesian lores, “fishing up islands” means to discover different islands, or to fish islands out from the sea.  The story of Maui wishing to catch a big fish as an analogy for uniting the Hawaiian islands goes thus:  Maui’s kupuna, or grandmother, said to him, “Take this bone from the top of my head and make yourself a hook.  Then go out a whole day’s voyage, and part of the night, out to sea.  When it is the middle of the night cast in your hook.  Row for shore, and mind that you turn not behind you to look!  When you enter Hilo bay, you will hear the people shouting because of the size of your fish.  If you look behind you before your feet touch the sands, your fish will escape.”   However, when people were shouting, Maui and his brothers could hardly refrain from looking backwards to see the fish, and Maui forgot his grandmother’s words.  The line broke, and the one big island was broken into many smaller ones – Maui, Oahu, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Kauai, Niihau, Molokai – floating out to sea, thus they are nearer to each other but stay floating apart.  He was so upset that he dived into the sea for his hook and threw it to the sky.  There it became a group of stars called Ka Makau Nui a Maui, the Fish Hook of Maui, which is a part of the constellation Scorpio.  When the United States annexed Hawai’i in 1898, folks said that Maui must have been out fishing again, for now the islands were united with America.

In the end, Maui, while attempting immortality, proved to be mortal and died.  Maui was “less than a god, but more than a man.  Not absolutely good, not absolutely bad.  Loved but not worshiped.  Earth-bound but a heaven-burster.  Comic yet tragic.  Petty and heroic.  Boy and man.  Benefactor and destroyer.  The Polynesian Peter Pan and Peck’s Bad Boy, their Joseph, Joshua, and Moses.”* The story of Maui is a parable for man who met his death for having overreached his own authority, who dared to defy the gods.

This dress is adorned with tropical island beauty like that of Maui’s.  Its base is molded from two identical oblong scarves of a silk and cotton blend, which creates an elongated V-neckline, throughout pleating, and a flattering A-line silhouette.

*Katharine Luomala, Maui-Of-A-Thousand-Tricks: His Oceanic And European Biographers.