Te Moana
Tokelauan · deity · Tokelauan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Te Moana ('the Ocean', sometimes given as O Te Moana) was the sea-god of Tokelau and, after Monfat's account, the god second in rank, named as the son of the supreme god Tui Tokelau. He took visible form in the waterspout, and his power over the sea was both protective and destructive: when Fakaofo was attacked, the priest of Te Moana prayed to him to raise high waves and a strong wind to drive off and drown the enemy fleet. On the marae at Fakaofo his own tall coral slab stood beside that of his father, the two shrines marking the apex of the island pantheon.
Parentage
- parent: Tui Tokelau
Domains
- sea and ocean
- storm waves and wind
Powers
- to raise high waves and strong winds against enemies of Fakaofo
- to take visible form as a waterspout at sea
Relations
- subordinate to: Tui TokelauTe Moana, son of Tui Tokelau, ranked second among the gods beneath his father.A. Monfat, Les Samoa, ou Archipel des Navigateurs: etude historique et religieuse (Lyon, 1890), pp. 304-310. (secondary)
Sources
- Te Moana ('the Ocean') is the Tokelauan sea-god, son of the supreme god Tui Tokelau and second in rank, who manifests in the waterspout and was called upon to raise destructive waves and winds against attackers of Fakaofo.: Gordon Macgregor, Ethnology of Tokelau Islands, Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 146 (Honolulu, 1937), pp. 60-62. (secondary); A. Monfat, Les Samoa, ou Archipel des Navigateurs: etude historique et religieuse (Lyon, 1890), pp. 304-310. (secondary)