Matuatonga

Matuatonga

Matuatonga is a Māori stone sculpture on Mokoia Island, Lake Rotorua, New Zealand, which is a mauri (relic) or whakapoko and belongs to Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Rangiteaorere, and other tribes of Te Arawa. It is the most famous atua kumara and was traditionally involved in rituals connected to the sowing of the annual kumara crop. The sculpture has a male figure carved on each side, one representing Matuatonga, god of growth, and the other Matuatehe, god of decay. According to some traditions, Matuatonga was brought to New Zealand from Hawaiki c. 1350. It was buried in the 1820s and exhumed in 1866, at which point a smaller sculpture was given to Governor George Grey and deposited in the Auckland Museum. Some sources claim that this smaller sculpture is the "true" Matuatonga and that the one on Mokoia today is only a replica.

Pantheon: Polynesian Culture: Polynesian Civilization: Polynesia Period: 1000 BCE – present

Source: Wikipedia