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Maru-Tuahu, a MythSource painting
Polynesian

Maru-Tuahu

01Identity

Maru-Tuahu in Polynesian tradition

Maru-Tuahu is Hotunui's son in the specific Māori account collected and translated by George Grey. Hotunui leaves Kawhia after a false accusation of stealing food, while his wife is expecting their child. As an adult, Maru-Tuahu travels to Hauraki to find his father and is received by him. The account then turns to Maru-Tuahu's response when Hotunui tells him that local people insulted and demeaned him: Maru-Tuahu arranges a feast and net-making under false pretences, ending in a mass killing of the guests and a seizure of their country. This is a bounded retelling of Grey's witness, not a general account of Māori history or present-day custom.

SourcePolynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race (George Grey): The Story of Maru-Tuahu, the Son of Hotunui, and of Kahurere-Moa, the Daughter of Paka (EPUB text block 1)· Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race (George Grey): The Story of Maru-Tuahu, the Son of Hotunui, and of Kahurere-Moa, the Daughter of Paka (EPUB text block 2)· Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race (George Grey): The Story of Maru-Tuahu, the Son of Hotunui, and of Kahurere-Moa, the Daughter of Paka (EPUB text block 3)· Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race (George Grey): The Story of Maru-Tuahu, the Son of Hotunui, and of Kahurere-Moa, the Daughter of Paka (EPUB text block 8)· Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race (George Grey): The Story of Maru-Tuahu, the Son of Hotunui, and of Kahurere-Moa, the Daughter of Paka (EPUB text block 13)· Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race (George Grey): The Story of Maru-Tuahu, the Son of Hotunui, and of Kahurere-Moa, the Daughter of Paka (EPUB text block 21)

Top questions

The quick answers

02Family

Maru-Tuahu’s family, at a glance

Hotunui
Maru-Tuahu
03The names

The names Maru-Tuahu answers to

Maru-tahu

04The myths

The myths of Maru-Tuahu

1 myth, with sources recorded for each.

Maru-Tuahu and the Feast of Rotten Wood

In Grey's account, Hotunui leaves Kawhia after people accuse him of stealing sweet potatoes from a storehouse. A thief had taken the food, but Hotunui's footprints crossed the same path and obscured the thief's tracks. Ashamed by the accusation, Hotunui departs for Hauraki while his wife is expecting their child. He tells her what to name the child if it is a son or daughter, tying those names to the planting ground he had prepared before leaving. The child is born as Maru-Tuahu.

When Maru-Tuahu is grown, he asks his mother to show him where his father lives. He sets out with the enslaved attendant who accompanies him in Grey's account, hunting birds for food on the forest route. Near Hauraki, two daughters of Te Whatu encounter the attendant and then notice Maru-Tuahu in a tree. They welcome him and invite him to their village. After pausing to wash and arrange his hair and ornaments, he joins them. His identity becomes known, and he is warmly received by Hotunui. At a feast the younger daughter is given as Maru-Tuahu's wife; her elder sister later marries his younger brother, Te Paka.

Later, Hotunui tells his son how one of the local people insulted him when Hotunui's servant asked the net owner for fish on his behalf. Maru-Tuahu becomes gloomy at this account and resolves to answer the insult. He spends months preparing a large net and food for a feast, laying attractive provisions over rotten wood and waste. He invites the people who had demeaned Hotunui to help stretch the net. As they work, Maru-Tuahu and his men raise their end over the guests and drop it, trapping them. Grey's account says the guests were then killed; no one escaped, and Maru-Tuahu's men suffered no losses. It says their country passed to Maru-Tuahu and his heirs, and connects the episode with the name Feast of Rotten Wood.

Maru-Tuahu and the Feast of Rotten Wood, a MythSource painting of the scene