Oceania Myth

Oceania: The Myth
By Christian M.

The Myth is how Maui fished New Zealand out of the water and he made the daylight and discovered fire.

This story is about a young boy that is called Maui who grew up in the sea with the sea god. The ancestor from the sky taught him wisdom. Then when he was big he returned to his family but his brothers didn't know him. His mum knew him and his brothers were all jealous of him. So the brothers thought that it was a bit strange that they didn't know him and his mother did.

Their mother told the two brothers to catch fish but Maui was already in the canoe playing with the fish spears. Maui went fishing with his brothers and he showed them how to make barbs on their spears so they didn't lose the fish off the end. Then he showed them how to fix their eel pots so the eels couldn't swim out. He told his brothers it was easy to make the eel trap. "You just have to be cleverer than the eels." This insult make his brothers angry and they wouldn't take Maui fishing.

So one day he hid in the boat and went fishing. Maui pulled up a huge fish. It was so big it covered the sea as far as they could see. This fish became the islands of New Zealand. The island became the home for Maui and his family and the Maoris.

They liked their new home, but then Maui noticed the people had to work fast because there were not many hours of sunlight. Maui asked his brothers to help him to slow down the sun. His brothers had seen the things Maui could do and they decided it was silly to be jealous so they agreed to help him.

With Maui's wisdom from his ancestor in the sky he could make ropes with magical powers. Maui and his brothers caught the sun in ropes and Maui wouldnÕt let the sun go until he promised to go more slowly over the sky. The Maoris liked the longer days but now they needed fire to keep them warm at night and to cook with. So Maui went through a hole in the earth to meet Mahuika who had fingernails made of fire. Maui asked her how to make fire and she gave him a fingernail. So he threw it in the sea.

But he still didn't know how to make fire. So the next day he went again and Mahuika threw a bit of her fingernail on some dry grass and the whole Earth got in flames. Then Maui asked the ancestor to help him and a huge wave went over the whole Earth. Mahuika saw the wave and just before the fire went out, she threw two sparks in a tree where they stayed until the Maoris learned to make fire with wood.