INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world.
These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.
I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.
The sun is shining and summer is truly in full swing here in the UK. I spent last week in the seafront city of Brighton and had the loveliest time writing this episode in pubs and cafes around the place.
DESCRIPTION:
This week we’re heading to Oceania but not to the more common Australia - but to where the hobbits roam, New Zealand for a Maori monster. Yes, this week we are looking at the Taniwha! I also must apologise - I pronounced this wrong last week so this is the actual pronouciation.
This monster was recommended to cover from one of my Kiwi pals, Corey - so I’m happily dedicating this episode to him and his little family as they’re expecting a little boy soon too, which is super exciting.
The Taniwha is described as many different things - but they are most commonly a water beast. They usually take the form of whale sharks, great white sharks, crocodiles, large geckos or even driftwood, but they are always found in the water and are immensely large monsters. It’s debated whether they are actually shapeshifters and they change their shape based on how deep the water levels are where they are based or if there are different water depth varieties of this monster too, which is definitely unique.
The Taniwha are responsible for creating harbours leading out to the oceans within Maori or Polynesian mythology and I’ll go more into this mythology later as it’s one that we’ve never covered before! They’re said to have carved out Wellington and Hokianga, as well as the entire Lake Waikaremoana and can cause landslides besides any lake or river they are nearby.
They can usually be identified through spines or fins on their back or even sometimes wings and their immense size - they can never make themselves any smaller and so they can certainly stick out. They’re said to have a dragon or serpent-like face with sharp teeth and long forked tongues, however in terms of appearance - that’s about all we have on them. They are both male and female, and they’re generally considered to be benevolent to the tribe they are associated with, and use local priests to communicate to their tribe to warn of oncoming enemies and help drowning people.
This is because these monsters were also considered protective guardians or kaitiaki who came from the Polynesian land of Hawaiki, which is the ancient homeland of the Polynesians within their mythology - it’s also sometimes referred to as the Maori underworld and where all the Polynesian folklore and people come from before they were dispersed around the globe. The Taniwha were the guardians of certain canoes and went on to protect descendants of those travelling tribes, and most of these tribes will have their own dedicated Taniwha. They make sure that the tribes uphold the traditions imposed by tapu, which are sacred laws and fun fact, is where the English word taboo comes from.
However, the Taniwha are deadly to those belonging to other tribes - and are big enough to swallow people whole. In fact there was one instance where the beast was killed, and inside its belly were men, women and children - all undigested and whole, but they were all dead from suffocation. They were also known for kidnapping women and keeping them as wives when they felt up to it.
They generally live in the caves of these bodies of water with very strong currents, and if someone wanted to cross the the water - they would need to leave offerings and an incantation in order to appease the Taniwha, most commonly it was a green twig and taro, which is a type of sweet potato and is bright purple - if you’re a fan of Taiwanese bubble tea or boba like me, you’ll see this is a really popular flavour choice and the drinks are a lovely pastel purple colour.
There’s not much on record about how long they live - but we do know that they can be killed by just normal means of killing a large shark. A bit of fishing, a big knife or spear gun and go for the gills and eyes - simple. You can also eat Taniwha if you cut it up - so there’s that too. In terms of reproduction - we know that they have babies, but you can also be turned into a Taniwha if you were regularly interacting with them through your life, such as if you were a medium or even if you drowned. Taniwha were also sometimes known to have relationships with humans, so that person would give birth to a Taniwha too - although I don’t even want to consider the logistics of that.
ORIGIN:
In terms of etymology, it’s actually quite a complicated one this week, only as all of the Polynesian languages have words for this monster, and the root words can mean different things in each language. The most agreed-upon translation is from the Proto-Oceanic word tanifa, which means shark species but means large and dangerous shark in Samoan, however, in Tongan and Niuean, tenfia means that too. In Tokelau, tanifa is a whole other sea monster who eats people and lastly in most other Polynesian languages - it means shark or just fish - so it’s kind of all over the place, but I really like that. Also a good note is that with the pronunciation of this monster - wh is pronounced like f in Maori.
For history, this one is truly a bit of a nightmare to track down - mainly because it’s a native culture who very much like Native Americans, tend to keep their folklore within their own people and so the only information we have on this monster is from people within those cultures who are willing to share these. Unfortunately for us, it means that definitive timelines and dates are a bit tricky to come by - but we do know that the Polynesian people are nomadic and were mostly a sea-people for a good while, and the Maori eventually settled in New Zealand between 1200 and 1300 AD but we don’t know specifically when the Taniwha myth was created within this culture.
What we can talk about though is Maori and Polynesian folklore. So important note is that Maori is one of the Polynesian cultures, but because Polynesia is a collection of nationalities and cultures - it spans a much wider influence within the world in terms of geography. Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania as a continent and make up around 1,000 different island spread across both the central and southern Pacific Ocean, including but not restricted to New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Hawaii, the Easter Islands, Fuji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Guam and the Solomon Islands for example. The biggest one of these is, of course, New Zealand. All of these have separate mythology, cultures, history and folklore - however, they share similar traits so we use the blanket term of Polynesian mythology within classic spaces.
When we talk about Maori mythology though, it is specific to New Zealand or in Maori, Aotearoa. This mythology focuses on their own pantheon of Gods but as the Maori were known for their travelling and journeying through the seas - a lot of what they hold dear are animals, the land and sea, and a lot of their myths talk about the creations of the islands that make up Polynesia. A famous character within Polynesian mythos is Maui who pulled the islands from the sea, created the first coconut trees and fought monsters. You can definitely see a Herculean type figure within him as a demigod - and you can watch some of his exploits in Disney’s Moana, which is based on this nomadic culture. However, for monsters, you might find that one Polynesian culture has one monster that is not seen in others or it can be spread across all of them - so that’s a good note for the future.
Back to Taniwha though, there are some famous stories with these monsters, one of which I mentioned earlier - the creation of Wellington Harbour. The story goes that there were once two Taniwha brothers called Ngake and Whātaitai who lived in the lake in Wellington Harbour, which at the time, was cut off from the sea. The boys spent their whole lives lounging and playing in this lake, but one day heard the crashing waves of the sea. They would ask the sea birds what it was like, and they would tell them the wonders of the open ocean, and the boys overtime grew too big for their little lake.
One day they decided they would break free, and Ngake rolled up his tail into a spring shape and propelled himself into the cliffs around the lake. He hit one of them and toppled the rocks into the sea, creating the Cook Strait. Ngake was injured, but managed to slide over to the sea. He was more active than his brother, and when Whātaitai tried, he landed in the gap forged by Ngake on dry land - stuck forever. The tide would wash him up food and keep his scales wet, and he was content with his life with his friends the sea birds. However, one day an underwater eruption occurred and the water raised to above sea level - Whātaitai couldn’t do anything, and so said goodbye to his friends and breathed his last. His body eventually turned to stone and is still there, it’s now a suburb in Wellington called Hataitai. However, Ngake with his power tail linked the lake and the sea and he still roams today, when he is out at sea - the sea is calm, but when he’s home - it is turbulent.
There are a couple of other famous Taniwha, such as Kaiwhare who was tamed by a local hero called Tāmure, who had a magical club to defeat Taniwha. A local tribe asked Tamure to get rid of Kaiwhare, and the two wrestled until Tāmure whacked Kaiwhare over the head with his club. He didn’t kill him, but managed to tame him enough to get the monster to only eat octopus and crayfish instead of people. Another is Āraiteuru, who with her 11 sons created the Hokianga Harbour, and lastly Ngārara Huarau who was a vicious Taniwha who ate several villagers and captured one of the women to live in his cave. He is eventually tempted to the village for a feast where they all attack and kill him. His tail detaches itself and is thrown at the base of Wainui Falls, where the rocks are stained reddish brown with the blood of the monster.
The earliest written report of the Taniwha was from 1886 from a newspaper talking about a Taniwha killing a local girl, saying that ‘a native girl was found dead in a stream in that vicinity with the flesh stripped from one arm’ and that two tourists claimed they had seen a strange creature with a head like an alligator, and a teacher seeing a Taniwha swimming in a snake-like way.
In more modern times, it is still a very widely believed monster. All of those famous ones, bar the dead ones of course - are still believed to be alive and wriggling. They are most mentioned recently in court and on the news in New Zealand, due to habitats being developed by humanity. In 2002, a whole highway building plan was moved as it was proposed over a cave of an Taniwha who still had a tribe to protect. And it was moved to make way for this. They were even brought up in government in 2021 when the Foreign Affairs Secretary remarked about the China-New Zealand relationship as one of the Taniwha and a dragon. So it is still something that is highly respected and also it seems, feared.
Lastly, let’s talk about comparisons. Naturally, I think most people link New Zealand with its neighbour Australia in terms of deadly animals - however, there are no crocodiles in New Zealand, but there are still sharks, including Great Whites in the northern island. Saying that though, I think the only possible real explanation might be large crocodiles from way back when - however, the logistics of them getting over the ocean to the islands seems complicated and unlikely. Great Whites can be massive, but there are also Basking sharks in New Zealand, which are whale-sized but harmless to humans that might explain it too. In mythology comparisons, we have the Mo’o from Hawaiian folklore which of course is still Polynesian, and is a reptilian deity who can shapeshift, protect and kill men. I’m sure we’ll cover this one at another time!
There was also a dinosaur named after the Taniwha back in 1874 called the Taniwhasaurus, which was a mosasaur - so a very large crocodilian/reptilian sea monster, which I think is pretty cool.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Now onto modern media, we only have a few for this monster I’m afraid - so I’ve topped this up with Maori mythology media because it’s awesome and still very few I’m afraid.
For art, it’s a bit limited this week but you can have a look at the carvings from the Hotunui meeting house from 1878 or there are some cool carvings of the Taniwha in Lake Taupō which are very lifelike! Otherwise, check out independent stuff for this week!
In movies, we have; Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real, Moana, The Suicide Squad, Once We Were Warriors, Space Mates & Papa Taniwha.
For TV, we have; Wellington Paranormal, Power Rangers Dino Charge, Island of Mystery, Tamatoa the Brave Warrior, The Monster Hunter, Mataku, Destination Truth & Walking in the Shadows.
In video games, we have ones such as; Pathfinder, SMITE, Magic: The Gathering, Civilisation 6, Path of Exile, Guardian Maia, The Mark of Kri & Hehu and the Taniwha.
My book recommendations this week are He Atua, He Tangata: The World of Māori Mythology by A.W. Reed and Ross Calman and Purakau: Maori Myths Retold by Maori Writers by Whiti Hereakas. Check these out for some more tales within this mythos, I think it’s amazing and massively understated.
DO I THINK THEY EXISTED?
Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?
I’m a little unsure on this one - and not because of my normal reasons for water beasts, yada yada yada. This is because I think it could have been an old version of a crocodile that has been spotted over the years from Australia - I think that might be the only plausible explanation. There aren’t records of crocs in New Zealand at all, but I think that might be the only thing I can think of.
Very much like the Australian Bunyip though, it chills out in water and caves - and how much can we really know about the cloudy lakes of shark-inhabited water? I know for a fact I wouldn’t be in there knowing what might bite me - so maybe it’s just that the monster hasn’t been hunted enough - we don’t know. What I do love about this monster though is that it’s still having an impact today, and the Maori are still so fierce in their beliefs and traditions which just makes me so happy. I get teary everytime they do the Haka at rugby games, it’s just such an amazing cultural embrace, which should be encouraged worldwide in my opinion.
But what do you think? Did the Taniwha lurk in the caves of New Zealand? Let me know on Twitter!
OUTRO:
What a great monster, I love New Zealand and the Maori culture, so it was such a joy to cover this monster. I intend to move over to New Zealand later on in life, so looking into Maori monsters just makes me love it even more. I was also very surprised at the amount of content I found for this one considering it is a native folklore, so I’m so glad I found so much to say on it so you can love this one as much as I do.
Next week, we’re heading over to Italy and looking at a strange monster, and is it really a monster, or is it a really unfortunate deformed child? You decide with the weird Monster of Ravenna next Thursday.
For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods, Buymeacoffee and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.
Come join the fun though and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.
But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.