Tūmatauenga

Tūmatauenga (often shortened to Tū, literally 'Tū of the Angry Face' or 'Tū of the Fierce Countenance') is the formidable primordial deity of war, of warriors, of hunting, of fishing and of human sovereignty over the natural world in the Māori cosmology of Aotearoa. Son of Ranginui and Papatūānuku, Tūmatauenga was the only one among the primordial gods who openly argued for the physical destruction of the parents to escape the oppression of darkness. After the separation carried out by Tāne, when the furious brother Tāwhirimātea unleashed cosmic gales upon the earth to avenge the progenitors, Tūmatauenga was the only being who remained standing unshaken, facing the storms and repelling the fury of the winds. Outraged at the cowardice of his brothers who fled or hid, Tūmatauenga retaliated against all of them: he braided snares to bring down Tāne's birds, wove flax nets to drag in the fish of Tangaroa, and dug the soil with wooden spades to gather the roots of Rongo and Haumia, reducing his brothers to profane food (noa) for humankind. As the archetypal personification of aggressive and ingenious human nature, he gave mortals the capacity to subjugate ecosystems, while his spiritual presence presided over war expeditions (taua), the consecration of fighters through the tohi baptism, and the strict rules of tapu on battlefields.

9 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

The taiaha, the war tattoo (moko), the challenge grimace and the spear

Primary sources

• Grey, Sir George, Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional History of the New Zealand Race. translation: London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1855. read
• Whatahoro, H. T. / Smith, S. Percy (trans.), The Lore of the Whare-wānanga (Te Kauwae-runga: Celestial Teachings). translation: New Plymouth: Polynesian Society, 1913. read
• Shortland, Edward, Maori Religion and Mythology: With Notes on the Land Tenure of the New Zealanders. translation: London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882. read

Studies

• Tregear, Edward, The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Wellington, N.Z.: Lyon and Blair, Lambton Quay, 1891. open
• Best, Elsdon (Dominion Museum), The Maori As He Was: Early Culture. Wellington: Dominion Museum, 1924. open