Huanaki
Niuean · deity · Niuean traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Huanaki is the great completer among the tupua of Niue. In the Pulekula narrative he came up from Fonuagalo after Fao, found the island unfinished, and completed the making of the land, which was then named with the several old names of the island. With Fao he forms the canonical pair of island-creators who are said to have swum from the direction of Tonga; Huanaki is reckoned the ancestor of the northern division of Niue, Motu, as Fao is of the southern Tafiti. Loeb records that the Niueans made a stone image of Huanaki at the place Vaihoko, marking him as a focus of cult as well as an ancestor.
Domains
- island creation
- northern people motu
Powers
- to complete the making of the island of Niue
Epithets
- tupuaEdwin M. Loeb, History and Traditions of Niue, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 32 (Honolulu: Bishop Museum, 1926). (secondary)
Relations
- twin sibling: FaoHuanaki and Fao are the paired brother-creators of Niue who swam from the direction of Tonga and divided the island between their descendants.Patrick D. Nunn, 'Myths and the Formation of Niue Island, Central South Pacific,' Journal of Pacific History 39, no. 1 (2004): 99–108, DOI 10.1080/00223340410001684877. (secondary)
- companion: FakahokoFakahoko was among the tupua who came with Huanaki from the lost land and settled the finished island.Edwin M. Loeb, History and Traditions of Niue, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 32 (Honolulu: Bishop Museum, 1926). (secondary)
- companion: Lagi-ateaLagi-atea was one of the company of tupua who arrived with Huanaki to settle Niue after its creation.Edwin M. Loeb, History and Traditions of Niue, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 32 (Honolulu: Bishop Museum, 1926). (secondary)
Sources
- Huanaki is the completer-creator among the tupua of Niue, who finished raising the island that Fao had begun, gave the land its names, and became the founding ancestor of the northern (Motu) people.: Edwin M. Loeb, History and Traditions of Niue, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 32 (Honolulu: Bishop Museum, 1926). (secondary); Pulekula, 'Traditions of the Niue-Fekai,' trans. S. Percy Smith, Journal of the Polynesian Society 12, no. 1 (1903): 22–31. (secondary); S. Percy Smith, Niuē-fekai (or Savage) Island and its People (Wellington: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1903). (secondary)