Mythology
In the mythology of Mangaia (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 (Tregear 1891:392). Nevertheless the famous maori anthropologist Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck), gives a less mystical interpretation of this mangaian Avaiki. According to him, "when Tangi'ia came to Rarotonga from Tahiti, he brought with him some rankless "manahune" (...) 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"
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