View source for Avaiki

==Mythology==

In the [[Polynesian mythology|mythology]] of [[Mangaia]] in the Cook Islands, Avaiki is the "[[underworld]]" or "netherworld". It is described like a hollow of a vast coconut shell. [[Varima-te-takere]], the mother of [[Vatea]], lives in the lowest depths of the interior of this coconut shell.<ref>E.R. Tregear, ''Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary'' (Lyon and Blair: Lambton Quay), 1891.</ref>{{Rp|page=392}} Nevertheless, the New Zealand anthropologist [[Peter Buck (anthropologist)|Peter Buck]] (Te Rangi Hīroa), gives a less mystical interpretation of this Mangaian Avaiki: "when Tangi'ia came to Rarotonga from Tahiti, he brought with him some rankless "manahune" [commoners] ... As they had no chance of rising in social status, some of them under the leadership of Rangi migrated to Mangaia to start a new life (c.1450–1475). Their antagonism toward Rarotonga made them conceal the land of origin and invent an origin from a spiritual homeland in the netherworld of Avaiki."<ref>Peter Buck, "Mangaian Society" in "Bulletin of the Bishop Museum", Honolulu, 1934.</ref>