Kupe

The legend says the giant octopus kept eating all the bait from his tribe's fishing lines back in Hawaiki.

So Kupe and his navigator, Reti, chased it for weeks across the ocean in a huge canoe named Matahudua.

And Kupe's massive canoe had to cross the part of the ocean famous for terrifyingly strong winds and gigantic waves, right?

Yes, and they fought and defeated the giant octopus in a place called Tori Channel But more importantly, this epic chase led Coupé to discover a massive, unknown landmass.

Because he followed the octopus? What did the new land look like? As they got close, Coupé's wife, Cura Madotini, saw a huge white cloud resting over the towering mountains.

That's the traditional Maori name for New Zealand.

Exactly.

Kupe discovered autearoa, which was one of the last large landmasses on Earth to be settled by humans.

Maori language advocate Stacy Morrison says the word has its origins in the discovery of this country.

Kupe, who people know as the first navigator, and Hine-te-Apārangi, another expert navigator, they were a couple, and the story that we hear from the north is that it was Hine-te-Apārangi who said, "He ao, he ao, he Aotearoa." It's a cloud, it's a cloud, it's a long white cloud.

She says the word shouldn't be controversial, and deleting it from new curriculums undermines the treaty partnership ministry documents say is supposed to be at their core.

It's just like one word that can give us a sense that that vision is being realized.

In death, Māori believe that your spirit travels to Spirits Bay at Cape Reanga.

Down the cliff there is a pahutakawa tree believed to have been planted by Kupe over 600 years ago.

There your spirit leaps off the tree and travels through the air back to Hawaiki.

Today marks the end of Te Riki o Te Reo Māori, Māori Language Week.

I must put that caveat in there.

But back in the day, way back, uh, there's a story about Kupe, who hopefully most of us know, uh, is credited with, widely credited with discovering New Zealand or Aotearoa.

His wife was on a waka.

Uh, on the waka as they were journeying here, journeying here.