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Tīrama Mai
Tommy Taurima

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Kahungunu seduced Rongomaiwaihine by diving for paua.
Tīrama mai tō ātaahua1
Kia rite tonu ki te pounamu e
He wahine o whiti
Ko koe ko Rongomaiwahine-e-e

E noho mai koe, e hine
Ki te rohe o Te Māhia e
Tūpato rā, e hine
Ko koe! - Rongomaiwahine-e-e

Minamina mai rā, e tama e
Ki te toa nei o Kahungunu
E mate ana koe mai i a wai?
Auē taukuri ko Rongomai e-e-e

Tihei2 winiwini, tihei wanawana3
Tihei oriori ana e
Nā te pāua raru āna
Tihei ko Rongomaiwahine-e-e

Radiant is your beauty
just like greenstone.
A woman of the sunrise
That's you, Rongomaiwahine

You live, my darling
In the Mahia district.
You be careful there
You hear now - Rongomai!

Does he want you so much (that lad
with such courage, Kahungunu)
that he would even risk being drowned?
Oh, for goodness sake, Rongomai!

Carrying fear, carrying terror
Carrying a story of tribal origins also
with his troublesome paua
he carried to Rongomaiwahine


1. Tīrama = a light in the darkness, of a star, torch or candle. So I guess "Tīrama mai tō ātaahua" would mean "Your beauty attracts men like moths to a candle flame," but that is a bit too long for the translation.

2. Tihei = to carry clasped to your body. Don't confuse this word with Tihe or Tihēi = sneeze.

3. Winiwini, wanawana. These two words mean much the same, but are usually used together to intensify their effect. A Google search shows "Tu winiwini, Tu wanawana"- "Kia tu te winiwini, kia tu te wanawana" - "Ka rere te winiwini, ka rere te wanawana" - "Ka whaka winiwini, ka whaka wanawana" - "Kura winiwini, kura wanawana" -"te hau o winiwini, te hau o Wanawana" - "ki te kura-winiwini i raro nei, ki te kura-wanawana i raro nei."

Kahungunu's Paua

Kahungunu was already married when he met the beautiful, intelligent and radiant Rongomaiwahine at Mahia. And she was married too. But he wanted her so badly that he dived off the rocks into the sea and went down deeper than anyone else dared to, to where the really big succulent paua (abalone) shellfish were. He brought them up by clamping them to his body and emerged from the depths with a couple of dozen big black shellfish all over him. Aagh! The monster from the deep!

But after everyone had eaten that feed of paua, they slept so soundly, snoring and making such smelly farts, that Rongomai was forced to leave her husband's side and go outside - where Kahungunu was waiting for her! And so a dynasty was started.

Rongomaiwahine

Rongomaiwahine was the principal ancestor of the people of the Mahia Peninsula. She was a woman of very high rank and a famous beauty, descended from both Ruawharo, the tohunga of the Takitimu voyaging waka, and Popoto, commander of the Kurahaupo voyaging waka.

Kahungunu

Kahungunu was the great-grandson of Tamatea-mai-tawhiti, (Tamatea from Tahiti) the captain of the Takitimu voyaging waka.

And he was the son of Tamatea-pokai-whenua, (Tamatea encircling the land) New Zealand's first extreme sports enthusiast. Kahungunu's father took a 50-man canoe around all of New Zealand, and then arriving back in Cook Strait, decided to take a bit of a cross-country short-cut home to Tauranga.

He and his 50 men poled their big canoe all the way up the Whanganui river, portaged it across to Lake Rotoaira, navigated down the Tongariro river, sailed across Lake Taupo, and started down the Waikato river.

He tried to shoot the Huka Falls in that big canoe, but he and most of his men were drowned in the attempt. (He must have been quite crazy, but he is my favourite old New Zealand hero - JA)

Kahungunu inherited the daring, energy and leadership of his two Tamatea ancestors. Handsome and hard working, he married many women during his lifetime, and his many descendants later made many strategic marriages, creating a network of alliances from Gisborne to the Wairarapa. Kahungunu's other wives

Kahungunu's pursuit of Rongomaiwahine

Rongomaiwahine was Kahungunu's last wife. She and her first husband Tamatakutai, a carver, lived at Tawapata, on the eastern side of the Mahia Peninsula.

But when Kahungunu arrived at Mahia, he was determined to have Rongomaiwahine for himself.


Greeting card by Fay Looney - order here.

So he set about gaining the approval of Rongomaiwahine's people. He climbed a hill behind the village at Tawapata, where he watched the shags diving, and he practised holding his breath until the birds reappeared.

Then he went diving himself: holding his breath for long periods, he filled several containers with paua (abalone shellfish) - enough for all the occupants of the village. When he surfaced from his final dive he had covered his chest with the paua, and everyone was very impressed.

One story tells how the meal of paua made Rongomaiwahine fart continually during the night, inducing her to leave her husband's side and go out to relieve herself at the distant latrine.... . And as she came back, Kahungunu was waiting for her. This story says he successfully wooed her that night, and thus changed the whole Maori history of the East Coast.

After Rongomaiwahine took Kahungunu for her husband, their principal pa was Maunga-a-Kahia. Rongomaiwahine had two daughters by Tamatakutai and then three sons and two more daughters by Kahungunu.

Some Maori identify themselves as both Ngati Rongomaiwahine and Ngati Kahungunu. But the mana of Rongomaiwahine is so great that those who are descended from her first two daughters identify themselves only as Ngati Rongomaiwahine.

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Published on the web Dec 2008

This information was put here in Dec 2008 for Lee Ataria, a Wairoa boy now living in the USA.