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The Road and the Taniwha

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Australian Folklore 22, 2007 85

The Road and the Taniwha

A. Asbjørn Jøn

You must preserve our customs and never permit our land to be taken
from us. 1

Taniwha are mythical beasts, of the spiritual tradition of the New

Zealand Mäori, with analogues that appear within other Polynesian
cosmologies. In general terms, the taniwha is arguably one of the Mäori
cultural icons that have begun to be adopted most readily as a part of the
broader body of New Zealand folk tradition.

In more recent years, taniwha have featured prominently in New

Zealand news broadcasts—due to taniwha spirits being referenced in
both court cases and in various legal negotiations. Arguably the most
prominent of such instances took place on the 19th of December 2002—
when Transit New Zealand and Ngati Naho, a hapu of the Tainui iwi
(tribe), reached a highly significant agreement concerning a proposed
stretch of road near the township of Meremere.2 That agreement centred
upon plans for the development of the road being altered due to the
perceived impact upon a local taniwha, named Karu Tahi.3 Another
notable instance of taniwha featuring heavily within the public eye was

1 Tamati Waka Nene, Ngati Hao, Ngapuhi, at Waitangi (5 February 1840), in UNESCO
Cultural Futures: For use with Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum, Part
Two: Tools for Exploring Cultural Futures (Wellington, NZ: NZ Futures Trust,
2000), p. 44.
2 Meremere is a township located on the east bank of the Waikato River between
Hamilton and Auckland in New Zealand. The 2001 census saw the population of
Meremere drop to 354—with over 60% of that number being Mäori. Historically it
had been the site of fighting between European forces and the Mäori during the Mäori
Wars.
3 Jan Knappert’s standard reference text, Pacific Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth
and Legend, lists the word Taniwha as referring to: ‘A huge monster like a dragon or
an enormous lizard which once lived in numbers in the caves and lakes in the
mountains of New Zealand’. The definition however should most likely be much
broader, as taniwha have been reported as marine beasts at times, or even known to
take the form of logs or other entities within waterways. Taniwha have also been
viewed as a form of guardians by the tangata whenua, or people of the local land. See
'Taniwha’, in Pacific Mythology: An Encyclopedia of Myth and Legend (London:
The Aquarian Press, 1992; repr. London: Diamond Books, 1995), p. 292.
86 A. Asbjørn Jøn

that of a proposed Northland prison site at Ngawha which was

eventually granted approval through the courts.4
Leading up to the Meremere agreement, for some years local Mäori
had blamed an inexplicitly high road toll rate on the presence of the
taniwha.5 Notably the accidents contributing to that road toll had
primarily occurred upon on a straight section of three-lane-wide road.
Those local stories are highly significant to the study of New Zealand
taniwha lore, not only as explicit examples of contemporary Mäori
interacting with knowledge of the mythological beast - and hence creating
or mythicizing living examples of modern day beast-lore; but also due to
the impact that those examples of living beast-lore had upon aspects of
the decisions regarding the development of essential secular
infrastructure, in this case a public road.
The Meremere example has arguably also had a wide impact on critical
thinking about management practices throughout New Zealand—sparking
publications from a range of respected New Zealand academics, in the
fields of law and business studies.6 Largely those publications have
questioned the way in which legislation can most fairly account for the
spiritual and lore-based needs of Mäori, whilst also accommodating the
needs of secular New Zealand. Furthermore, it attracted a spurt of
international media attention upon taniwha, with the story being reported
by a wide range of agencies from the BBC News to The Washington
Monthly.7 Notably, however, a significant proportion of the news stories
within New Zealand approached the situation through the eyes of
economic rationalism—suggesting, that ‘Ngati Naho [was] standing in the
way of progress’,8 and causing an unnecessary financial burden on
taxpayers. In that theme, ONEnews (http://tvnz.co.nz) ran stories
regarding the events, such as ‘Monster halts highway construction’ (3
November 2002), ‘Mäori spirits in motorway’ (7 November 2002) and
then regarding the Northland taniwha, ‘Taniwha plans to disrupt
Waitangi’ (30 November 2002).

4 ‘Resource consent for prison denied’, ONEnews (15 March 2001). <http://tvnz.
co.nz/view/page/423466/32958>
5 Corbett, Jan, ‘Transit and the Taniwha’, The New Zealand Herald (9 November
2002).
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3003401>
6 Love, Matene, 'Transit and the Taniwha: A Case Study', in K. Bartol, M. Tein, G.
Matthews, G., and D. Martin, Management: A Pacific Rim Focus (Auckland, NZ:
McGraw Hill 2004), pp. 123-124. Rex Adhar, ‘Indigenous Spiritual Concerns and
the Secular State: Some New Zealand Developments’, Oxford Journal of Legal
Studies, 23.4 (2003), 611 - 637 (p. 635).
7 Ward, Greg, ‘Maori swamp creature delays road’, BBC News: World Edition (4
November 2002). <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2397707.stm> Kevin
Drum, ‘Political Animal’, The Washington Monthly (19 January 2003).
<http://www2.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2003_01/000176.php>
8 ‘Maori Spirits cost taxpayers’, ONEnews: National (9 January 2003).
<http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national_story_skin/160516>
The Road and the Taniwha 87

The occurrence of
Mäori having significant
contemporary interactions with
taniwha beast-lore is not
isolated to the Meremere area
though, and the importance of
those interactions with the lore
should not be underestimated.
A range of credible New
Zealand newspapers have
published statements by
prominent Mäori—in the wake
of these events—regarding the
validity, importance and
ongoing, living existence
taniwha lore has within
contemporary New Zealand.
Notably, perhaps the most
significant of those illustrations
of the living taniwha lore
appeared in The New Zealand
Herald, and recorded that:

Mäori Cabinet minister John Tamihere agrees ‘there's no doubt’ about

the existence of taniwha. Dr Ranginui Walker, former professor in the
Mäori Studies Department at Auckland University, was raised knowing
to never swim at the bend in the river because the taniwha would get
him. 9

Consequently the taniwha sits in a position of being recognised as an

important part of New Zealand Mäori culture, and perhaps also
increasingly the broader New Zealand culture, yet is also perceived at
times to be a cultural element that can be used in political or development
based debates—hence leaving it to occupy a peculiar and unique position
within the New Zealand mythic landscape.
One element that is at times debated within the media, or in response
columns to media stories about taniwha, is the nature of the beast. There
is a substantial body of taniwha tales, and generally, within those tales,
taniwha are depicted as the inhabitants of rivers, swamps, lakes or the
ocean. It is widely acknowledged that taniwha can shape-shift to take
either the form of their aquatic representation, or that of a wooden log or
stick—most often remaining within the waterways that form a part of
9 Corbett, Jan, ‘Transit and the Taniwha’, The New Zealand Herald (November 9
2002).
88 A. Asbjørn Jøn

their domain whilst in that form. Some specific tales speak of taniwha
taking on the form of a mako shark, or of whales, while some of the
Mäori ancestors are even said to have ‘travelled on taniwha … to New
Zealand’.10 Occasionally other tales, centring upon taniwha after their
arrival to New Zealand, speak of earthquakes being attributed to them, or
of them taking on forms that resemble tuatara (a lizard-like New Zealand
amniote). This polymorphic nature would appear to at times contribute
to modern confusions about the beasts.
It can also be said that taniwha are generally connected to iwi groups,
and that they have acted as a form of tribal guardians at times. The
taniwha were said to communicate warnings, or important information to
the Mäori of their respective iwi, through tohunga, or Mäori shamanic
priests. In that spiritual sense the taniwha were considered to usually
treat the Mäori well—if shown the appropriate levels of spiritual
respect. In keeping with showing that respect, taro and kumara (sweet
potato) were often offered to taniwha through rituals at harvest times,
which are believed to have included karakia, or ritualised songs.11
Recorded taniwha-lore also clearly indicates that the tohunga had a
level of power over taniwha.12 It has been noted that the tohunga would
at times pluck hair from their head whilst performing sacred karakia, in
order to gain control over taniwha. However, it could easily be argued
that, as a result of the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907, a great deal of
information regarding the practices of tohunga—and hence the tohunga
related aspects of taniwha lore—has been lost, and hence that our
remaining knowledge of these practices is either incomplete or partially
inaccurate due to omissions.13
Some scholars have suggested ties between the taniwha and the Arabic
tannin (meaning great serpent), primarily upon attempts at etymological
and iconic linkages, ultimately suggesting a seemingly unlikely Aryo-
Semitic root for the beast. Those links draw primarily upon an
investigation of the Sanskrit form tan, which means ‘stretched out’, and

10 ‘Canoe Traditions, the meaning of canoe traditions’, Te Ara Encyclopedia of New

Zealand
<http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/MaoriNewZealanders/CanoeTraditions/1
/en> [accessed on 17 June 2007].
11 Orbell, M., The Concise Encyclopedia of Mäori Myth and Legend (Christchurch, NZ:
Canterbury University Press, 1998), pp. 149-150.
12 See H.T. of Croisilles: Nelson District, ‘Te Tohunga me te Taniwha’, Journal of the
Polynesian Society, 10 (1901), pp. 72-73. On tohunga see Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter
Buck), The Coming of the Maori (Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1949; repr.
2nd edn., 1974), p. 474; or Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of
Ecstasy, trans. by Willard R. Trask (New York: Pantheon Books, 1964: repr. Great
Britain: Routledge, 1988), p. 369.
13 On the Tohunga Suppression Act 1907 see: Derek A. Dow, ‘Pruned of its dangers:
The Tohunga Suppression Act 1907’, Health and History, 3 (2001), pp. 41-64.
The Road and the Taniwha 89

relationships to the Leviathan in Hebrew.14 These theories have not been

widely accepted—and most taniwha scholarship seems to focus on New
Zealand and Oceanic links instead. A case has been argued, however, by
Kenneth Maddock of Macquarie University, to highlight the parallels
between some functions of taniwha—such as links to water, guardianship
over an area, and threatening or destructive behaviour toward the
uninitiated—with those of Australian bunyips and rainbow serpents. 15
Consequently, from a folkloric perspective, the recognition of such a
complex and essentially spiritual element of indigenous Mäori culture
(the taniwha), and the adaptation of state level planning for secular
infrastructure—in the cases of roads or prisons—to accommodate it, is
highly significant. It outlines an almost folklorismus-like process where
an element of the spiritual and cultural beliefs of the indigenous
population is being moulded and reformed as an integral part of the legal
landscape, and official interactions with the landscape. Arguably this
could be argued to be a rational extension of the bi-cultural nature of New
Zealand society.
Notably, the ideological conflict that seems to appear when mythical
aspects of Mäori culture, such as taniwha, are recognised by the
government, as suggested by the ONEnews stories, is not something that
New Zealand faces in isolation. Native studies writers, such as Canadian
James Youngblood Henderson, have recognised, ‘the core belief of
Aboriginal spirituality is that everything is alive and aboriginals seek
spirituality through communion with the ecological biodiversity. Such
beliefs deny a distinction between sacred and profane, since all life
processes are holy and sacred.’16 Consequently unlike many of the larger
world religions, indigenous faiths often include a holistic view that makes
drawing clear distinctions between the secular and the religious
problematic. This could be seen to reinforce the concept that through the
state’s adoption of elements of indigenous spiritual lore—through
legislation and planning -, an adjusted set of broader folk values are being
encouraged to be adopted by other segments of the community, for an
understood reason.

14 See A.S. Atkinson, ‘The Aryo-Semitic Maori’, Transactions and Proceedings of the
Royal Society of New Zealand, 19 (1886), pp. 552-576 (pp. 568, 570). This research
paper was read before the Nelson Philosophical Society on 1 November 1886. The
argument for such links is also documented in: E. Tregear FRGS,‘The Aryo-Semitic
Maori: A Reply’, Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New
Zealand, 20 (1887), pp. 400-413.
15 See Kenneth Maddock, ‘Taniwha Parallels in Australia’, The Journal of the
Polynesian Society, 97.3 (1988), pp. 261-263.
16 Henderson, James Youngblood, ‘The Struggle to Preserve Aboriginal Spiritual
Teaching and Practices’, in J. McClaren and H. Coward (eds.), Religious Conscience,
the State, and the Law (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1999), pp.174-175. Similarly, a
New Zealand Judge, Judge Hammond of the Hamilton High Court, has also felt the
need to comment on the growing clash between the secular and legal,.
90 A. Asbjørn Jøn

Notably, New Zealand legislature has dealt with these issues for some
time, with a clear example of this bi-cultural philosophical stance being
the Historic Places Act (1993, s2), which recognises that ‘a place sacred
to Mäori in the traditional, spiritual, religious, ritual and mythological
sense’ is waahi tapu. Areas that are deemed waahi tapu are officially
recognised as sacred sites, and gain a strong measure of protection under
the act. Like the recognition of the taniwha in the Meremere case, the
legal use of waahi tapu to protect sacred sites could arguably empower
the site’s related Mäori mythological lore, and over time aid the
recognition or adoption of fragments of that lore into the broader New
Zealand folk experience.
This issue, however, has been examined by Professor Rex Ahdar, of
the Faculty of Law, at the University of Otago, from a legal standpoint,
highlighting some concerns. Ahdar has suggested that:

The ideals of religious equality and neutrality are surely undermined …

as Mäori spiritual beliefs and interests have become the first among
equals. The explicit acknowledgement and adoption of Christian,
Muslim or Buddhist beliefs and rituals would be unthinkable today, but
Mäori spirituality receives carte blanche under the guise of respecting
and honouring the indigenous people.17

Thus holistic and spiritual mechanisms have been used to protect Mäori
sacred sites and lore have caused. Judge Hammond noted that what it
requires society to ‘judge’ is ‘essentially a clash between technology and
culture’.18 Judge Hammond’s comments came in reference to the notable
TV3 Network Service Ltd v Waikato District Council & The Tainui Hapu
& Others case—dealing with the construction of a television translator
tower on a hill named ‘Horea’, at Raglan Harbour. Local Mäori deemed
‘Horea’ as a waahi tapu site. Notably this case took place following an
appearance in the Environmental Court which found that ‘the overall
cultural uniqueness of Horea was significant and should outweigh the
technological activity for which consent was sought’;19 however, it once
again sparked similar debates to those following the Meremere
developments—and a number of other cases have also elicited similar
responses from the media.
Perhaps partially in an effort to resolve these issues, the University of
Waikato has established the Te Mätähauariki Institute, whose primary
17 Adhar, Rex, ‘Indigenous Spiritual Concerns and the Secular State: Some New Zealand
Developments’, loc. cit., p. 635.
18 AP55/97. High Court Hamilton. 12 September 1997. Hammond J. Hammond, J, in TV3
Network Service Ltd v Waikato District Council, NZLR (360, 1998), p. 371.
19 Bennion, Thomas and Geoffrey Melvin, ‘TV3 Network Services Ltd v Waikato
District Council & The Tainui Hapu & Others’, The Maori Law Review (Bennion
Law, October 1997) <http://www.bennion.co.nz/mlr/1997/oct.html>
The Road and the Taniwha 91

goal is the investigation of ways in which the New Zealand legal system
might be moulded to better reflect the meeting of the best concepts and
values from both European (Pakeha) and Mäori cultures. This, in turn,
would allow for the active protection of Mäori sacred sites and lore, its
use to enrich the broader body of New Zealand lore, and the use of
positive processes in the achievement of those goals. As a tool in
working toward that ends, the Te Mätähauariki Institute has striven
towards developing Te Mätäpunenga, a compendium to provide
definitive encyclopedia dictionary entries on the customary law concepts
of Mäori tradition. Te Mätäpunenga has been developed through
consultation with both Mäori kaumätua (tribal elders), and legal scholars,
and is to cover a range of subjects, including the impact of spiritual
concepts such as taniwha and rähui (the placing of a temporary taboo on
an area limiting access to certain people—which would in the past have
been ‘enforced’ by the traditional gods, Papatuanuka and Tangaroa).20
The clarification provided by the Te Mätäpunenga project can only be
seen as a step toward making the interaction of Mäori lore, and
customary law, with New Zealand’s other laws and processes, the more
easily recognized and understood by the New Zealand European, or
Pakeha, community. Arguably, through a combination of efforts such as
these, to de-mystify the Mäori lore that events such as the Meremere
expressway negotiations have codified into the secular New Zealand folk
experience, and a period of time for the populace to absorb that
knowledge—growing ‘used to using a stretch of road that travels close to
the home of a taniwha’, those spiritual elements will most likely come to
form a much more integrated part of the broader New Zealand folk
understanding and experience.
In keeping with that idea, Black, Wright and Erickson, of Brigham
Young University—Utah, have recently noted in ‘Polynesian Folklore:
An Alternative to Plastic Toys’, that traditional beast-lore—such as that
of taniwha—is most often considered to be a tool for communicating and
teaching cultural fears and hopes from generation to generation.21 That
finding would perhaps be supported by the above comments of Dr
Ranginui Walker, regarding the active body of taniwha lore about not
swimming in certain parts of rivers—possibly due to perceived
dangers—and so perhaps provide a pathway towards a possible shared
understanding that could empower a greater use of taniwha, or other

20 The legal significance of rähui has also already been commented upon by the High
Court in New Plymouth during the case ‘Proprietors of Paranihi ki Waitotara Bloch
vs Horimakuterangi Manuirirangi et al.’ in October 2003. See Proprietors of
Paraninihi ki Waitotara Block v Horimakiterangi Manuirirangi et al., The Mäori Law
Review (February 2004), p. 2.
21 Sharon Black, Thomas Wright, Lynnette Erickson, ‘Polynesian Folklore: An
Alternative to Plastic Toys’, Children's Literature in Education, 32.2 (2001), pp.
125-137.
92 A. Asbjørn Jøn

customary Mäori lore, within the broader folk experience. That ideal has
also been noted by Professor Richard A. Benton, of the Te Mätähauariki
Institute, who recognises that ‘Taniwha are [not always] mythical
creatures, … most of the time … they may be clear and present dangers,
potential sources of trouble on any of a large number of levels, powerful
friends or foes, but never phenomena to be taken lightly, even by a court
of law’.22
The issue that seems to spring to the forefront, then, is the place that
these elements of traditional lore are taking in the ongoing moulding of a
unified national folk identity and imagination. Post-colonial theorists
have argued extensively about the process of reshaping identities in this
way, and it is now generally accepted that ‘the nation-state of a colonial
and settler society is rendered increasingly problematic as the issue of
national identity is contested by diverse claims for cultural autonomy and
by the effect of migration’.23 The cultural ‘product’ of decisions, such as
the expressway at Meremere, must be an acceptance of taniwha into the
mainstream, perhaps even European (or Pakeha), New Zealand culture—
as a part of the broader mythicization of the New Zealand landscape for
all New Zealanders. This, however, would also suggest that through the
process of protecting the geographic and mythic taonga, or cultural
treasures, of the Mäori, the government is acknowledging the value of
those elements to all New Zealanders—and hence they are perhaps in a
small way beginning to become New Zealand taonga, as opposed to
specifically Mäori taonga.
Notably, despite any confusions or negative slants in media stories,
the taniwha has made a number of strong appearances within New
Zealand popular culture in recent decades—perhaps beginning the
process of transferring from being an element of Mäori culture, to a
broader New Zealand cultural icon. Arguably most notably, the taniwha
has become the subject of popular music—through the Split Enz song
‘Dirty Creature’—which featured as the opening track on their 1982
album Time and Tide. ‘Dirty Creature’ presents a taniwha as a
monstrous beast dwelling at the bottom of a lake which may cause peril
to those who disturb it.24 In a similarly popularised format, taniwha have

22 Benton, Richard A., ‘Lexicography, Law and the Transformation of New Zealand
Jurisprudence’, presented at the International Invitational Symposium on Concepts in
Polynesian Customary Law (Fale Pasifika, University of Auckland, 12 October 2004), p.
4. The ‘quote’ has been taken from a copy of Professor Benton’s notes for the conference
presentation, which can be found at:
<http://www.lianz.waikato.ac.nz/PAPERS/symposium/Benton.pdf>
23 Spoonly, P., ‘Citizenship in a Post-Nation State’, Sites, 35 (Spring, 1997), pp. 1-19
(p.17).
24 Split Enz, Time and Tide (Mushroom Records, 1982). Australian readers may be more
familiar with the band name that was used by the musical alumni of the Split Enz
project, Crowded House, under which the group won much critical acclaim not only
in Australia but also further abroad.
The Road and the Taniwha 93

also been the subject of a number of children’s books, such as Tim

Tepene’s Taming the Taniwha or Manu Te Awa’s He Taniwha.25 This
once again perhaps suggests that these mythical beasts are gradually
becoming a taonga of the broader New Zealand folk experience.

This series of events must, surely, acknowledge a strong grounding for

a cultural climate within New Zealand that continues to blend European
and Mäori concepts in order to build a unique and shared bi-cultural
understanding of place, environment and spiritual connections to the
land. Those understandings and connections have been strengthened
through the use of key aspects of both, in this case Mäori, and in other
cases European or Pakeha, lore—and protected as a set of national values
by legislation. Perhaps through that ongoing process the common cannon
of Kiwiana icons, such as the ‘world famous in New Zealand’ L&P, The
Southern Man, the All Blacks, the Haka, Edmonds Cookbooks, Number
8 Wire, Bluff Oysters, Paua Shells, Buzzy Bees—and perhaps now
taniwha—might also come to include a wider range of Mäori lore. The
development of legislation to protect, or even encourage those elements
of Mäori lore, could then be viewed as a form of postcolonial
commitment to the development of an inclusive national body of myth-
lore, tradition, and of integrating disparate cultural values.

* *

Glossary of New Zealand Mäori Words

Hapu: sub-tribe, pregnant

Iwi: tribe
Karakia: a ritualised Mäori song, often in the form of a prayer.
Kaumätua : Mäori tribal elders who have been involved with their iwi
for a number of years. Kaumätua possess much mana within
their iwi, and are identified as select people able to provide
guidance and wise in Mäori lore (tikanga) and language (Te
Reo).

25 Tepene, Tim, Taming the Taniwha, illustrated by Henry Campbell (New Zealand,
Reed Publishing, 2001). Manu Te Awa, He Taniwha (New Zealand, Reed Publishing,
2001).
 94 A. Asbjørn Jøn

Mana: an innate quality within individuals that allows those around

them to view them with respect. Individuals develop mana
through both position and action.
Pakeha: A term used by Mäori to identify people of European
descent.
Tangata whenua: indigenous people born within the local region.
Taniwha: powerful monster, water monster.
Taonga: Mäori treasures, usually with a cultural value. These can be
either tangible or intangible.
Tapu: taboo, holy
Tohunga: Shamanic Mäori priest (in the context used in this paper).
Waahi tapu: sacred sites

* * *

Use of the Word/ Concept Taniwha

It may well be of interest to readers to be informed that the Maori
taniwha, word and concept, would appear to be acquiring a wider use in the
last two generations, and so very much like the wider use of the bunyip
concept one radiating out from Australia in a myriad of associations both
serious and more amusing/ gently playful.
A case in point is that one of the Chief Inspector Morse detective stories
by Colin Dexter, namely The Way Through the Woods (London: Macmillan,
1992) has various subtle references to the taniwha as a presence, a spirit,
that may well be said to follow New Zealanders born far across the world and
in some way act as a sort of (ambiguous) familiar spirit.
Eds.

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