Story: Tāwhirimātea – the weather

More links and websites

• Astronomy NZ – Taatai Arorangi (Māori astronomy)

  This has comprehensive information on Māori astronomy, which is important in understanding traditional knowledge of the seasons and weather.

• Māori environmental knowledge

  The Maori Research and Development Unit (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) found that members of Ngāti Pare (Coromandel) and Te Whānau ā Apanui (Eastern Bay of Plenty) had an intimate understanding of local weather and climate. Some examples of this knowledge are listed.

More suggestions and sources

• Best, Elsdon. The astronomical knowledge of the Maori, genuine and empirical. New ed. Christchurch: Kiwi, 2002 (originally published 1922).
• Best, Elsdon. >Māori religion and mythology. 2 vols. Wellington: Te Papa Press, 2005 (originally published 1924).
• Orbell, Margaret. A concise encyclopedia of Māori myth and legend. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 1998.
• Reed, A. W. Reed book of Māori mythology. Revised by Ross Calman. Auckland: Reed, 2004.