Hawaiki

/ ˈhɑːwaɪkiː /

noun

a legendary Pacific island from which the Māoris migrated to New Zealand by canoe

Origin of Hawaiki¹

Māori

One tribe declared that long ago in far-off Hawaiki a chief hated another, but was too weak to do him harm.

Another legend relates that in Hawaiki the people were fighting, and a tribe being beaten was forced to leave the island.

Tahiti seems to have been a center of dispersal, as Percy Smith has pointed out in his interesting book "Hawaiki."

A Rarotongan legend relates that in Hawaiki two new fruits were found, and the vari discarded.

The seed of our coming is from Hawaiki; the seed of our nourishing, the seed of mankind.

Browse