Niwa-reka

"Great delight." A descendant of Hine-tītama and Rū1 or Te Hinu-tohu.2 She was the wife of Mata-ora. She left her husband on account of his having beaten her, and she went down to the underworld (Pō) to her father, Ue-tonga. Her husband followed her, and underwent the tattooing process, being the first mortal thus ornamented. Mata-ora then took his wife back to the world of day; but he, having omitted to leave an offering with Kū-watawata, the janitor of underworld, was informed that he would be the last of the human race suffered to escape from the Kingdom of Death. Niwa-reka and Mata-ora had one child, named Papahu.

Niwareka is also the name of one of the canoes of Rata.3

❧

References

Notes

  1. Best, Elsdon. (1924). The Maori. Wellington, New Zealand: Harry H. Tombs, p. 173.
  2. ibid., p. 409.
  3. White 1887, p. 1:71.

Sources

  • Tregear, Edward. (1891). Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Wellington: Government Printer, p. 268.
  • White, John. (1887). Ancient History of the Maori. 6 vols. Wellington: G. Didsbury, Government Printer, p. 2:5.

This article incorporates text from Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (1891) by Edward Tregear, which is in the public domain.