Observations placeholder
Kahuna - Hawaiki
Identifier
007144
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The Māori name Hawaiki refers to the mythical land to which some Polynesian cultures trace their origins. The Māori name Hawaiki figures in legends about the arrival of the Māori but is allegorical. It is the place where the souls of the Maoris originated and the place where the souls of the dead go after death. Polynesian oral traditions, for example, say that the spirits of Polynesian people return to Hawaiki after death. A number of [non spiritual] western observers have taken the legends literally and have assumed the Maori legends refer to the actual colonisation of New Zealand, for example, or Polynesia, but this is not what the legends mean.
The meaning is clearer when it is realised the word Hawaiki includes sauali'i ("spirits" in Sāmoan) and hou'eiki ("chiefs" in Tongan). In effect the spirit home of ancestors and chiefs.
A description of the experience
Sebastian Englert records the following
He-kî Hau Maka: "He kaiga iroto i te raá, iruga! Ka-oho korua, ka-û'i i te kaiga mo noho o te Ariki O'Hotu Matu'a! [Translation:] "The island towards the sun, above! Go, see the island where King Hotu Matu'a will go and live!"