Kupe

• For the unit Kupe Kupe see (unit).
• For the asteroid Kupe, see ( 9487 ) Kupe.
• For the mountain Kupe in Cameroon, see Kupe ( mountain).

Kupe was in the mythology of many Māori tribes one of the discoverers of Aotearoa / New Zealand.

There are numerous versions of this expedition, which differ from tribe to tribe in details. In the version that is considered the classic, Kupe was a great tribal leader from Hawaiki, which reached New Zealand in the year 925. He drowned his cousin Hoturapa during a fishing trip on the sea and kidnapped his wife, Kuramarotini with which he then in her big canoe, Matahourua fled. During the escape they overpowered some sea monsters and demons, including the large octopus called Te Wheke -a- Muturangi, and finally landed in New Zealand. Some time later Kupe returned to Hawaiki, and told of his adventures and his discovery. He was able to convince others to emigrate with him in the newly discovered land.

There are some scientific discussion regarding Kupe. Later versions of the legend differ significantly from earlier. The so-called classical version above is closely related to S. Percy Smith, a New Zealand ethnologist and researcher of the 19th century. This version is very accurate details in regard to the date of arrival in New Zealand or places where Kupe had lived, and placed Kupe time some centuries before the arrival of other canoes of the Polynesian migration to New Zealand. In contrast, earlier versions of the legend say that Kupe was a contemporary of those canoes.

According to the legends of the Whanganui and Taranaki regions Kupe was explicitly a contemporary of Turi of the Aotea canoe. In other traditions, Kupe reached New Zealand in other canoes, for example in Tainui or Takitimu canoe, approximately around 1400.

The researcher Davis Simmons said on this subject:

" A search for sources for what I now call the Great New Zealand mystery, so the legend of Kupe, Toi and the large fleet that provides amazing results. In this form, they are available in the old records not, and not even in the official speeches and speeches ( whaikōrero ) the learned Māori. Parts of it are to be found. Kupe was and is known in the traditions of Hokianga, Waikato, the East Coast and the South Island, but the ancestral stories do not agree with those who like it has reproduced S. Percy Smith. They are a mixture of traditions of different tribes. In other words, the whole tradition as presented Smith, is the product of a European ( Pākehā ), and not by Māori. Similar is the story of Toi and Whatonga and their alleged canoe race, which should have led to the colonization of New Zealand. This story, as recorded by Smith, can be attributed only to a single Māori, and the scholars of his tribe never mentioned such a legend nor was reminded in some ceremonies of such a story. The origin canoes individual strains are well known in their respective tribes, but none of these traditions as Smith speaks of a fleet of six ocean-going canoes that were stored together in Raiatea. The Great New Zealand mystery remains unsolved. "