Tangaroa - Elsewhere in The Pacific

Elsewhere in The Pacific

Tagaloa is one of the oldest Polynesian deities and in western Polynesia (for example, Samoa and Tonga) traditions has the status of supreme creator god. In eastern Polynesian cultures Tangaroa is usually considered of equal status to Tāne and thus not supreme.

• In Samoan mythology, Tagaloa is the father of Losi and Fue.
• In Rarotonga (Cook Islands), Tangaroa was the god of the sea and fertility. He was the most important of all the departmental gods. Cult figures made from wood carvings were very popular in pre-Christian times and are still popular on the island today.
• In Mangaia (Cook Islands), Tangaroa is a child of Vatea (daylight) and Papa (foundation) and the younger twin brother of Rongo. Rongo and Tangaroa share food and fish: Tangaroa's share is everything that is red (the red taro, red fish and so on). Tangaroa is said to have yellow hair and when Mangaians first saw Europeans they thought they must be Tangaroa's children (Gill 1876:13, Tregear 1891:464).
• In Manihiki (Cook Islands), Tangaroa is the origin of fire. Māui goes to him to obtain fire for humankind. Advised to reach Tangaroa's abode by taking the common path, he takes the forbidden path of death infuriating Tangaroa who tries to kick him to death. Māui manages to prevent that and insists that Tangaroa give him fire. Māui kills Tangaroa. When his parents are horrified, Māui uses incantations to bring him back to life (Tregear 1891:463-464).
• In Hawaii, Kanaloa is associated with the squid or heʻe.
• In Tahiti, by the goddess Hina-Tu-A-Uta, Ta'aroa is the father of 'Oro.
• In the Marquesas Islands, the equivalent deities are Tana'oa or Taka'oa.
• In Tonga, the Tangaloa family of gods resided in the sky and were the ancestors of the Tuʻi Tonga kings.
• In Rennell and Bellona Islands (Polynesian cultures in the southern Solomon Islands) Tangagoa is a sea god which stayed on the coastal cliff of east Rennell known as Toho, and flew in the night with a flame in the sky. Tangagoa was believed to take spirits of the dead, so when someone was near death, the sparkling fire would be seen at night. Some can still recall the time when this god appeared in the night as a flame in the sky, and have many tales of it. Tangagoa started to disappear in the 1970s and early 1980s when Christian missionaries visited the cliff and cast him out.
• In Raiatea a legend reported by Professor Friedrich Ratzel in 1896 gave a picture of his all-pervading power.