Mata(ku)riki

Episode 22 – Mata(ku)riki (Based on a True Story) 

Hawaiki is our ancient homeland, but where is it and how did we forget its location in less than a thousand years? Here's an answer that I grew up with. When we asked Koro if he knew where Hawaiki was, he would always point upwards. "We're from the stars," he would say. "How else could we know without cartography tools that the North Island looked like a fish? The only way you could know is via an aerial view... from the stars." There are clues everywhere that we are from the stars. The instructions from Kupe are "whakatau ki a Atutahi mā Rēhua." Everyone assumes he was mapping the ocean pathway using the stars as a guide, but have we considered the possibility that when Kupe said, "go via Atutahi and Rēhua," he meant it - "whakatau" or visit Atutahi via Rēhua - and was giving us the true location of Hawaiki... among the stars? It's obvious when you think about it, which brings us to our story of the stars of Te Waka o Rangi and a young man's terrifying journey that would bring him face to face with the captain of Te Waka o Rangi, Taramainuku, the soul collector. 

T.A. Whero