The whakapapa of mauri

Mauri lineage of ‘life force’

Hineahuone derives from the words ‘hine’, to mean ‘woman’, ‘ahu’, meaning ‘to originate’ and ‘one’, meaning ‘clay’, ‘soil’ or ‘sand’. Hineahuone therefore meaning ‘woman originating from the soil’also known as Hinehauone, ‘hau’ meaning ‘wind’ or ‘breath’. Hinehauone meaning ‘woman who breathed from the soil’.

Papatuuaanuku (the earth mother) plays a principal role in this story. She is known as the first female figure, although godly, still embodying female attributes. Papatuuaanuku, uniquely comprising of earthly elements such as rock, mud, stone and clay. Her bodily fluids of lava, river waters and mud flows through her body, just as water flows around our body and blood through our arteries and veins.(Meads, 2016)

Eons passed and the thought of pursuing the uha (female element) arose from the atua (natural gods), to create a race of mortal creatures.

Kurawaka, the location of the puke, the fatty tissue above the pubic bone of a woman’s reproductive human anatomy. Kurawaka, the locale of the genitalia of Papatuuaanuku with iron clad fertile soil and rich red in colour. A perfect setting to craft the first woman, Hineahuone

The resources needed for the creation of Hineahuone were attained from three bases. From IO (the supreme being), from the atua of the heavens and from the children of Ranginui (sky father) and Papatuuaanuku (earth mother)

Not only were physical body parts gifted, so too were the inner qualities and mechanisms of Hineahuone.

The wairua (spirit, soul), manawa ora (breath of life) and toto (blood), retrieved by Rehua (god of healing) and gifted by IO.

The entities of the uppermost heavens, known as whatukura, gifted thought and the mahara (thinking power, intellect) and maareikura, gifted celestial knowledge.

The moment wherein Hineahuone came to life. It was a sneeze that awakened her organs and initiated the firing of her brain, the flow of her blood and the beating of her heart.

Tiihei mauri ora - alas, the sneeze of life. Te ira tangata (the realm of people) had arrived into the world.

The story of Hineahuone connects humankind to the atua.
This whakapapa shows that the parts of the human anatomy, the manawa ora, the mahara and the feminine and masculine rudiments instilled into Hineahuone, cannot exist in isolation.

Therefore, the whakapapa of the human body is in itself, tapu. Those body parts carry the mauri (life essence) of those that gifted them. (C.Sullivan 2017-18)