Hinemoa and Tutanekai

Description

Open Edition Reproduction

She was very beautiful and because of her beauty and her high rank, many young men desired her as a wife. One of those was Tutanekai who lived on Mokoia Island on Lake Rotorua, where of an evening he played the flute.

The sound of this music could be heard across Lake Rotorua at Owhata and it charmed the beautiful and noble-born Hinemoa who lived there. When Tutanekai visited the mainland with his people, he met Hinemoa and they fell in love.

The young man had perforce to return to his village, but the lovers arranged that every night he would play and that Hinemoa would follow the sound of his music to join him. Tutanekai kept up a nightly serenade but Hinemoa’s people, suspecting something was afoot, had hidden all the canoes. Hinemoa, however, was not to be deterred and, selecting six large, dry, empty gourds as floats, she decided to swim to the island.

Guided by the strains of her loved one’s music, Hinemoa safely reached the other shore and landed near a hot spring, Waikimihia, in which she warmed and refreshed herself – the pool is on Mokoia Island to this day. Tutanekai went down to the pool and to his joy discovered Hinemoa. Like all good stories, the legend has a conventional ending – they lived happily ever after.

This painting is Hinemoa and Tutanekai on the mainland after telling her parents of their relationship. They finally agreed and Tutanekai is sending a message by his flute for his people to come over and celebrate the union.