Hawaiki

In Polynesian mythology, Hawaiki (also rendered as Avaiki in Cook Islands Māori, Savaii in Samoan, Havaii in Tahitian, Hawaii in Hawaiian) is the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia. It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories. Anne Salmond states Havaii is the old name for Raiatea, the homeland of the Māori. When British explorer James Cook first sighted New Zealand in 1769, he had Tupaia on board, a Raiatean navigator and linguist. Cook's arrival seemed to be a confirmation of a prophecy by Toiroa, a priest from Māhia. At Tolaga Bay, Tupaia conversed with the tohunga associated with the school of learning located there, called Te Rawheoro. The priest asked about the Maori homelands, 'Rangiatea' (Ra'iatea), 'Hawaiki' (Havai'i, the ancient name for Ra'iatea), and 'Tawhiti' (Tahiti). Linguists have reconstructed the term to Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *sawaiki. The Māori word Hawaiki figures in traditions about the arrival of the Māori in Aotearoa, present day New Zealand. The same concept appears in other Polynesian cultures, the name appearing variously as Havaiki, Havaii, or Avaiki in other Polynesian languages. Hawaiki or the misspelling "Hawaiiki" appear to have become the most common variants used in English. Although the Sāmoans have preserved no traditions of having originated elsewhere, the name of the largest Sāmoan island Savaii preserves a cognate with the word Hawaiki, as does the name of the Polynesian islands of Hawaii (the okina denoting a glottal stop that replaces the "k" in some Polynesian languages). On several island groups, including New Zealand and the Marquesas, the term has been recorded as associated with the mythical underworld and death. William Wyatt Gill wrote at length in the nineteenth century recounting the legends about Avaiki as the underworld or Hades of Mangaia in the Cook Islands. Gill (1876:155) records a proverb: Ua po Avaiki, ua ao nunga nei – 'Tis night now in spirit-land, for 'tis light in this upper world.