A slow night, a lulling tide, above are the stars guiding our ancestors, the ocean and skies illuminated by Hina shining down. Imagining the view our tūpuna would have had on a quiet night between islands. 

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Reciting whakapapa, facetiming the whānau, traveling over oceans. As renowned navigators since way back, consuming distance, time and space are actions descendants of Te Moananui ā Kiwa have long been familiar with. While colonised histories may fail us, our reo, our place names, our whakapapa and our mātauranga hold the truth of our lineage across the moana.

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Hina is one such constant throughout time and across oceans. Hina has known many names - Hina, Ina, Sina, Hine. As Hine, she is known as the female element embodying mana wāhine[1]. As Hina-i-faʻauru-vaʻa she is the OG navigator, daring to travel beyond the moana to the skies and become Hina-aa-i-te-marama[2]. Hina, also called Hinauri, is one of the many names for the moon[3] - she’s watched over us mai rā anō.

Hina - the constant, the ever changing, who pushes and pulls the moana, who ripples across the water on a dark night. No doubt our tūpuna looked up at her in those quiet moments, as the waves licked at the waka, and she looked back. He mihi aroha tēnei ki a ia.

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1 Aroha Yates-Smith, Hine! E Hine!: Rediscovering the feminine in Maori spirituality, 1998 

2  Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu, Ka Makana. Kirikiriroa, Aotearoa: Hālāwai Publishing, 2019.

3 Aroha Yates-Smith, Hine! E Hine!: Rediscovering the feminine in Maori spirituality, 1998.

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Photos: Courtesy of Ralph Brown and artist.