Nuggets

Usage Notes

The Story of Tieke

as told by Ulva Amos from Māori Eco/Nature Guide Tours.

Once upon a time, the early Maori in Aotearoa (New Zealand) had a superhero called Maui. Maui had a pet blackbird (Tieke) that always kept him company, sitting on his shoulder while he made the ropes from flax and the ti tree to make a net. Maui's plan was to catch the sun in the net, beat him into submission so that he would slow down his frantic race around the globe. This was to prolong the daylight hours and to give people more time to perform their daily tasks.

So, on the fateful day that Maui decided to cast the net, his pet bird went with him. In the struggles to keep the sun in the net, Maui told his bird to go home, as the heat from the sun was so intense he was afraid that his pets feathers would burn. In fact, he told the bird to go home several times, each time Tieke refused to leave. Maui's hair was starting to melt in the heat, his skin was blistering, and still Tieke would not go home, so Maui grabbed the bird with his burnt hands and threw him down to the earth.

And that is why, to this day, the saddleback (tieke) has a burnt back.

[ The story of Maui and Tieke]