Pania is a spirit of Māori tradition.
The beautiful sea woman who had to return to the sea.
Pania, Pania of the Reef, is the beautiful sea woman of the Māori legend from Hawke’s Bay, who loved and secretly married Karitoki.
Cooked food broke the taboo between the human and the sea world; she had to return to the sea, and her son Moremore became a Taniwha and guardian of the waters around Napier.
Type: sea woman, benevolent reef figure
Origin: oral Māori tradition
Texts: Orbell
Period: committed to writing in the 20th century
Appearance: young sea woman, mermaid-like
Oral Māori tradition; the written record is relatively recent, from the 20th century.
New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay near Napier; the Pania Reef bears her name.
Good for a local legend: Orbell and local traditions from Napier.
Māori: Pania, also known as Pania of the Reef, denotes both the legendary figure and the reef off Napier.
Appearance
Pania appears as a beautiful young sea woman, mermaid-like, as depicted in the statue on Marine Parade.
Effect
No threat; as kaitiaki she embodies the boundary between worlds, continued by Moremore as Taniwha.
The key aspects at a glance.
A local Māori legend that explains the Pania Reef and the guardian Taniwha Moremore.
The reef off Napier; her son Moremore is considered its guardian, as a shark, ray or octopus.
Beautiful young sea woman, depicted as mermaid-like since the statue of 1954.
No threat; her story marks the boundary between the human and the sea world.
No defensive rite is recorded; central is the observance of the taboo between the worlds.
Mother of the Taniwha Moremore, linked to the sea monster Marakihau, but without his danger.
Pania met Karitoki, son of a chief, at a stream near Napier; the two married in secret, yet she had to follow the sea every morning.
To bind her, Karitoki placed cooked food in her mouth; the owl Ruru warned her, and Pania fled into the sea, for this broke the taboo. Her child became the Taniwha Moremore.
Pania is a landmark of Napier: the statue Pania of the Reef was unveiled in 1954 on Marine Parade, modelled on Mei Robin, and carved in Carrara marble.
From a religious-studies perspective, she is a local aetiological legend concerning the Pania Reef and the guardian Taniwha Moremore.
No defensive or protective rite is recorded, since Pania poses no threat. Central is the taboo of cooked food. Linked to her legend are amulet, holy water and salt.
Why did Pania have to leave?
Cooked food in her mouth broke the taboo between the worlds, and thus she was permanently parted from Karitoki.
Who is Moremore?
Her son, who became a Taniwha and guardian of the waters around Napier.
More in the bibliography.
As Pania of the Reef, she remains, in New Zealand, the familiar Māori sea woman whose love for a mortal foundered at the boundary between land and sea.
Against its influence, cross-cultural tradition names these protective means:
Compare in the Protection Compass →Recommended protective means
The simplest protective means in this collection: 41 layers of fine gold 999, platinum, silver and silicon, manufactured in Ruhla, Thuringia. It requires no activation, is bound to no person, and is effective within a radius of around 50 meters, even without being worn.
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