Carved Tane Mahuta - 116cm by Nikora Henare

Tane Mahuta by Nikora Henare 

Carved in New Zealand from Swamp Kauri

116cm x 30cm x 10cm


About Tane Mahuta:

Tane in Maori legend is believed to be the progenitor of humankind.

Some legends say that Tāne made the first man, named Tiki. More widely known is a tradition that Tāne was trying to find himself a wife, but at first he found only non-human females and fathered insects, birds, and plants. One such was Rangahore, who gave birth to a stone and was abandoned by Tāne. Then he made a woman by moulding her from the soil.

In some stories, Tāne marries his daughter Hine-tītama without her knowing who he is. Upon discovering that she has married her father, she flees to the underworld, and becomes the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-pō. Tāne follows her and begs her to return. She tells him to return to the world and raise their children, while she will wait below to receive them when they die.

Other traditions tell of the three baskets of knowledge that Tāne brought down from the heavens. 

Tane Mahuta is the given name of the largest living Kauri tree in New Zealand and grows a short two minute walk off the twin coast highway in the Waipoua Forest sanctuary. It has an estimated age of 1200 years, a girth of 14 metres and a height of 51 metres. 

About NZ Kauri