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Kaitangata (mythology)

In Māori mythology, Kaitangata is either a mortal son of Māui, or a son of star-god Rehua.

Kaitangata, the son of Māui, is an industrious man who married the female supernatural being Whaitiri. Due to his name, Kaitangata means man-eater, Whaitiri believed him to be a cannibal as she was. However this proved to be incorrect and she eventually left him because he offended her. Before she returned to heaven as a cloud, she taught Kaitangata how to fish. With Whaitiri, he was the father of Hemā; according to Leslie G. Kelly in a 1940 issue of The Journal of the Polynesian Society, early Christian missionaries Kaitangata and Hemā's familial relationship as stand-ins to teach Biblical relationships to the Māori.

References

  • B.G. Biggs, 'Maori Myths and Traditions' in A. H. McLintock (editor), Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 3 Volumes. (Government Printer: Wellington), 1966, II:447-454.
  • A.W. Reed, Treasury of Maori Folklore (A.H. & A.W. Reed:Wellington), 1963.
  • Kelly, Leslie G. "Some Problems with the Study of Maori Genealogies." The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 49, no. 2, 1940, pp. 241-242,  <nowiki>https://www.jstor.org/stable/20702807</nowiki>. Accessed 21 Nov. 2025.
  • Grey, Sir George. Polynesian Mythology and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race As Furnished by Their Priests and Chiefs. John Murray, 1855. pp. 63-64.