Māui and the Realm of the Dead in Hawaiian Tradition

Record summary

Hawaiian Māui cycles include encounters with death, Hina and other-than-human powers, although the stories do not form a single canonical underworld episode equivalent to every Māori Māui narrative. They are useful for comparing the Polynesian trickster-hero’s attempts to alter human conditions, negotiate thresholds and challenge divine or ancestral authority. Researchers should track island-specific versions and Hawaiian-language sources rather than merge them into a pan-Polynesian Māui myth. The connection to a formal underworld is interpretive and depends on the particular text or performance.