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Hawaiki (also rendered as Avaiki in the Cook Islands, Hawaiki in Māori, Savaii in Samoan language, Havaii in Tahitian, Hawaii]] in Hawaiian) is, in Polynesian folklore, the original home of the Polynesians, before dispersal across Polynesia.Hiroa, Te Rangi (1964). Vikings of the Sunrise. Christchurch: Whitcombe and Tombs. p. 69. . It also features as the underworld in many Māori stories.
Anne Salmond states Havaii is the old name for Raiatea, the homeland of the Māori. When British explorer James Cook first sighted New Zealand in 1769, he had on board Tupaia, a Raiatean navigator and priest. Cook's arrival seemed to be a confirmation of a prophecy by Toiroa, a priest from Māhia. At Tolaga Bay, Tupaia conversed with the tohunga associated with the school of learning located there, called Te Rawheoro. The priest asked about the Māori homelands, 'Rangiatea' (Ra'iatea), 'Hawaiki' (Havai'i, the ancient name for Ra'iatea), and 'Tawhiti' (Tahiti).
The Māori word Hawaiki figures in traditions about the arrival of the Māori in Aotearoa, present day New Zealand. The same concept appears in other Polynesian cultures, the name appearing variously as Havaiki, Havaii, or Avaiki in other Polynesian languages. Hawaiki or the misspelling "Hawaiiki" appear to have become the most common variants used in English language. Although the Samoans have preserved no traditions of having originated elsewhere, the name of the largest Samoan island Savaii preserves a cognate with the word Hawaiki, as does the name of the Polynesian islands of Hawaii]] (the okina denoting a glottal stop that replaces the "k" in some Polynesian languages).
On several island groups, including New Zealand and the Marquesas, the term has been recorded as associated with the mythical underworld and death. William Wyatt Gill wrote at length in the nineteenth century recounting the legends about Avaiki as the underworld or Hades of Mangaia in the Cook Islands.Gill, William Wyatt, 1876. Myths and Songs from the South Pacific. Henry S. King, London, pp 152–174. Gill (1876:155) records a proverb: Ua po Avaiki, ua ao nunga nei – 'Tis night now in spirit-land, for 'tis light in this upper world." Tregear (1891:392) also records the term Avaiki as meaning "underworld" at Mangaia, probably sourced from Gill.This meaning may be archaic or forgotten in the Cook Islands today. Buse (1996:90) in his dictionary Cook Islands Maori Dictionary with English Finderlist (edited by Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moeka) has this entry: Avaiki, prop. n. Hawaiki, the legendary homeland of the Polynesians. I tere tū mai rātou mei 'Avaiki. They voyaged direct from Hawaiki. The proposed origin of Hawaiki being both the ancestral homeland and the underworld is that both are the dwelling places of ancestors and the spirits.
Other possible cognates of the word Hawaiki include saualii ("spirits" in Samoan language) and houeiki ("chiefs" in Tongan language). This has led some scholars to hypothesize that the word Hawaiki, and, by extension, Savaii and Hawaii, may not, in fact, have originally referred to a geographical place, but rather to tribal chief ancestors and the chief-based social structure that pre-colonial Polynesia typically exhibited.M. Taumoefolau, "From *Sau 'Ariki to Hawaiki". The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 105(4), (1996), 385–410
On Easter Island, the name of the home country in oral tradition appears as Hiva. According to Thor Heyerdahl, Hiva was said to lie east of the island. Sebastian Englert records:
Englert puts forward the claim that Hiva lies to the West of the island.Englert notes that the phrase "The island towards the sun, above" seems to mean that, seen from Hiva, it lay toward the rising sun. Sourced from http://www.rongorongo.org/leyendas/008.htm The name Hiva is found in the Marquesas Islands, in the names of several islands: Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa and Fatu Hiva (although in Fatu Hiva the hiva element may be a different word, iva). It is also notable that in the Hawaiian Islands, the ancestral homeland is called Kahiki, a cognate of Tahiti, where at least part of the Hawaiian population came from.
Polynesian oral traditions say that the spirits of Polynesian people return to Hawaiki after death. In the New Zealand context, such return-journeys take place via Spirits Bay, Cape Reinga and the Three Kings Islands at the extreme north of the North Island of New Zealand. This may indicate the direction in which Hawaiki may lie.
In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl sailed the Kon-Tiki, a balsa-wood raft, from South America into the Pacific in an attempt to show that humans could have settled Polynesia from the eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean, with sailors using the prevailing winds and simple construction techniques.
However, DNA testing, linguistic, botanical, and archaeological evidence all indicate that the Austronesian-speaking peoples (including the Polynesians) probably originated from islands in eastern Asia, possibly from present-day Taiwan."Mitochondrial DNA Provides a Link between Polynesians and Indigenous Taiwanese," synopsis. Public Library of Science, July 5, 2005 "The origin of the Polynesians". The Economist, July 7, 2005. From there they gradually migrated southwards and eastwards through the South Pacific Ocean.
The sweet potato, which is of South American origin, is widely cultivated in Polynesia. This suggests that some interaction between the Polynesians and the indigenous peoples of South America may have taken place. No Polynesian crops were introduced into the Americas, and there is possible evidence of Polynesian contact only in Chile. Austronesian and Polynesian navigators may have deduced the existence of uninhabited islands by observing migratory patterns of birds.
In recent decades, boatbuilders (see Polynesian Voyaging Society) have constructed ocean-going craft using traditional materials and techniques. They have sailed them over presumed traditional routes using ancient navigation methods, showing the feasibility of such deliberate migration that make use of prevailing winds.
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