When he was a boy, on cold winter days, Te Kanawa Pitiroi would sit by the fire with his great-uncle Te Kiko-o-te-Rangi Wikatene and hear the stories, legends, traditions and histories of his iwi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa.

In his turn, Te Kanawa has also passed on the stories in the oral tradition. He and his wife Kataraina are kaumātua and kūia of Te Kura o Hirangi, a kura-ā-iwi in Tūrangi, and provide cultural support to the school.

Te Kanawa is a deep fount of cultural knowledge and knows many of the Tūwharetoa versions of the legends of the demigod Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga and his exploits, passed down to him from Te Kiko-o-te-Rangi.

But he is in his 80s and it became increasingly important that the stories he has collected and related for so many years be preserved in writing.

"Even the old people were saying if it's not recorded somewhere, ka ngaro ngā kōrero, they will be lost," says Kataraina.

The result is a set of the stories being newly published in the book Māui: He Tupua Rongonui, written in te reo Māori by Te Kanawa and illustrated by noted Ngāti Tūwharetoa artist Te Maari Gardiner, published by the Ministry of Education.

Te Kanawa first began writing down the Māui stories when he was a teacher at Tongariro High School in the 1960s but the 18-month process of working on the book gave him the opportunity to refine what he had started.

"I had to go back through all the stories and make sure everything was right."

The stories tell all of Māui's life, from his birth right through to his death, his achievements and his failures; and the Ngāti Tūwharetoa versions differ from the versions told widely throughout Aotearoa and the Pacific.

For example, in Te Kanawa's book, instead of Māui fishing up the North Island with a fishing line and a hook, the land rose out of the sea before him. In the story of Māui snaring the sun, he must first apologise to his sister for playing tricks on her and give her his best kūmara before she will give him a strand of her hair to weave into the rope that he successfully uses to catch the sun.

Another difference is that in the Tūwharetoa stories, Māui grows up into a young man whereas in many other versions of the Māui stories, he remains a boy, although his reputation as a cheeky trickster remains.

Kataraina says children are especially captivated by the Māui stories and Te Kanawa's telling of them.

"As soon as they know Matua [Te Kanawa] is coming, they are all sitting there waiting."

Te Kanawa says he used to tell the stories at the end of his school lessons and the students were always interested in them. His retellings were so good in fact, that one day he noticed two girls in the class crying. When he asked them why, it was because they had been so moved by the tale of Māui's mother, who thought her baby son was stillborn and cast him into the sea.

In the standard version, Māui is wrapped in his mother's topknot, but in the Ngāti Tūwharetoa version, Māui is set adrift in three baskets: one of supplejack, one of tī kōuka (cabbage tree leaves) and the third of his mother's hair.

On another occasion, when Te Kanawa was teaching at Tongariro High School he had an assessor, a school inspector, sitting in during one of his storytelling sessions.

"The assessor was sitting there listening to the story and at the end the kids started to clap and she said 'I've never ever seen that before in a class'."

The book is pitched at wharekura (senior students) but Te Kanawa is also adept at adapting the stories for different age groups. He anticipates it will be used both as a story book but also as a textbook.

He is quietly proud of the book and says the detailed illustrations by Te Maari which complement the text are excellent.

Te Kura o Hirangi held an unveiling of Māui: He Tupua Rongonui on Saturday, June 19 with the first copy presented to Ngāti Tūwharetoa Ariki Tā Tumu te Heuheu. For Te Kanawa, it was a significant day and he says it was appropriate that the ceremony be held at the school.

"Our principal [Henarata Ham] has been very supportive in all sorts of things.

"I must thank her and the board of trustees, they have been a huge help, support and encouragement."

The Māui book has however sparked an urge to record more stories. Te Kanawa is currently halfway through another one, this time about Tūwharetoa's great ancestor Ngātoroirangi, with many of the tales about the powerful tohunga's life before he left Hawaiki for Aotearoa.

Te Kanawa says although the book will briefly cover some of the stories of Ngātoroirangi after his arrival in Aotearoa, most of those are already known. He hopes to have the work on that volume completed by the end of this year.

Credit: Nzherald.co.nz