Mermaids in Polynesia (Story Time)

While mermaids may not be extensively depicted in Polynesian folklore compared to other cultures, there are certainly references to humanoid water creatures that share some similarities with mermaids. These beings play various roles in the mythology and beliefs of Polynesian cultures, often serving as protectors, guides, or warnings associated with the waters.

Transcript

Those of you who have seen Disney's Moana,

This next legend,

Might be interesting to you.

In Polynesian folklore,

Human beings and deities frequently intermingle and they can shapeshift.

Gods take human forms and people can change into divinities and sometimes they even transform into trees and other life forms,

Which is what we saw in the legend of Tuna.

Something like this happened to mermaid water goddess called Moana Nui Kalehua,

Who lived in the ocean between the Hawaiian islands of Kaui and Oahu.

There she guarded the Kaieie Channel with the aid of the two shark gods Kua and Kahole Akane.

Sometimes Moana appears as a great fish and sometimes she's a human or a hybrid creature,

A mermaid.

She could whip up storms at sea in order to get what she wanted.

One of her most famous incidents occurred when the volcano fire goddess Pele fell in love with a mere mortal named Lohiau.

Moana Nui Kalehua proved a tempest to prevent the couple from crossing the channel to marry.

And legend says that the mermaid goddess met her match in the Fisherman God.

Maui is definitely a hero or an antihero character in Polynesian folktales because he appears in legends of the many South Sea Icelanders.

One day she discovered him fishing in her waters and to thwart him she snagged his fishhook on submerged rock.

Maui,

A trickster figure in mythology,

Wasn't about to be undone so easily.

She pursued the mermaid until he captured her.

Then he brought her ashore where she died.

However Maui showed respect for his antagonist.

He laid her body to rest on a shrine and Moana Nui Kalehua's spirit transformed into an ohia lehua,

One of Hawaii's most common trees.

These Polynesian tree stories about these deities are really interesting.

It is definitely an animistic way to see how their surroundings were born from these legends.