Maui and the Sun: A Māori Tale 
Gavin Bishop

 

Maui and the Sun:                                

A Māori Tale
Gavin Bishop
North South (1996)
Picture book, 32 pages
Paperback
ISBN 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 978 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 1 86943 519 2 [Māori language edition] Ko Maui raua ko te atua o te ahi

 

Maui the mischievous troublemaker is a popular

 figure in Māori and Polynesian traditions. In this

retelling by Gavin Bishop, Maui and his brothers find the day is too short to complete their fishing.  Maui plans to slow the sun down to give them more time. He shows his brothers how to make ropes and nets from flax. They then trap the sun as he is sleeping. Maui beats him fiercely until he learns the sun’s secret name Tama nui te Ra (Great Son of the Day) and thus is able to slow him down.

The sun now travels too slowly and causes a long drought, so Maui ropes him and fastens him to the moon. As a result, when the sun sets, the moon rises. The sun’s speed is corrected. So from then on, Maui had light both night and day.

This is a good book to read and a great book to show to a class. Gavin Bishop’s prose is simple and clear, giving a sense of drama to the story. His pictures are skilful and dramatic, with the huge sun dominating the double-page spreads of the battle. Māori themes and motifs appear in many of the illustrations. Maui, his brothers (and the sun) all wear moko tattoos appropriate to their high rank.

Gavin Bishop, who both retold and illustrated Maui and the Sun based his version on one told to Governor George Grey in the 1840s by Wi Mahi te Rangi Kaheke of Rotorua. Maui’s trick of fastening the moon to the sun comes from a Ngati Awa tribe version.

 

A companion volume is Gavin Bishop’s Maui and the Goddess of Fire: A Māori Tale (1997)

Trevor Agnew

 

 

 

  

Maui and the Goddess of Fire: A Māori Tale
Gavin Bishop

 

Maui and the Goddess of Fire:                    

    
A Māori Tale
Gavin Bishop
Scholastic (1997)
Picture book, 32 pages
Paperback
ISBN 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 978 1 86943 381 9 [English language edition] Maui and the Goddess of Fire
ISBN 1 86943 519 2 [Māori language edition] Ko Maui raua ko te atua o te ahi

 

Produced in a similar format to Gavin Bishop’s earlier Maui and 

the Sun (1996) this book, Maui and

the Goddess of Fire, is a retelling of Maui’s greatest feat when, like Prometheus, he brought fire to people. As well as retelling a favourite folk-tale of the South Pacific, Gavin Bishop has also created dramatic (and sometimes amusing) illustrations.

 Maui, the trickster, puts out all the village cooking fires to see what will happen. Soon nobody can cook food. Maui’s mother gives Maui instructions to go to the home of his grandmother Mahuika, the fire goddess. (Everybody else is too frightened to go near her.) Mahuika gives Maui fire, in the form of her fingernail. He throws the fire into a stream and goes back to ask Mahuika for another nail. Maui does this again and again, but when he asks for her last nail, the fire goddess curses him and sets everything on fire.

 

Maui escapes the angry flames, first as a bird and then as a fish. When the sea begins to boil, Maui begs for help from Tawhiri-matea, the god of wind. He provides a rainstorm which puts out the fire, and Mahuika flees back to her home, tossing her last fire-seeds into our trees. And so, fire became available to all.

‘The people of Maui’s village soon discovered the seeds of fire hiding in some of the trees in the forest. And from that day on, the fire was released by rubbing together dry sticks from the totara, the patete, the pukatea and the kaikomako.’

Gavin Bishop’s pictures, like his stories, are delightful adaptations from traditional Māori material, enlivened by his professional skills. Look, in particular, at the double-spreads showing Maui tossing away the fire-nails (pages 14-17) for their subtle repetition. The transformation of Mahuika from granny-figure (page 11) to bird-headed monster (page 18) to all-conquering supernatural force (pages 20-23) and back to granny (page 28) is brilliantly done.

Gavin Bishop has based his version on the story told to Governor George Grey by Wi Mahi te Rangi Kaheke of Rotorua. He says, “It is very similar to the versions told by the Māori people of the Ngati Awa and Waikato tribes from the North Island of New Zealand from which come some of my ancestors”.

In 2001 a Māori language edition, Ko Maui raua ko te atua o te ahi, was published by Scholastic.  The Māori translation is by Katerina Mataira.

 

Trevor Agnew