Uenuku

Te Ao Hou, September 1964, Page 10

Uenuku The third rainbow god is Uenuku. It is Uenuku of whom it was said in the old days, ‘Ko Uenuku tawhana i te rangi: Uenuku, bow-like in the heavens’. Uenuku is a remote ancestor (as Kahukura and Haere may also have been). In his life he was a man, but after his death he became a rainbow.

Here is the story of Uenuku, as told to Elsdon Best by Paitini Tapeka of Maungapohatu. The woman in this story, Tairi-a-kohu, is a supernatural being, the personification of the mist. ‘Tairi-a-kohu’ is the name by which the Mist Woman is known to Ngati Kahungunu; many of the people in the Wairoa district trace their descent from her union with Uenuku. The song which Tairi-a-kohu sings before she leaves Uenuku is the same, though with some variations, as the song which a fairy woman sings in a somewhat different Ngapuhi version of the story. This Ngapuhi song appears as no. 37 in ‘Nga Moteatea’ part one, edited by Apirana Ngata and Pei Te Hurinui. The translation of the song given below is based on that in ‘Nga Moteatea’.