 Kia ora! I would like to share with you a legend that we believe is true. I stand here today on this beautiful land called Aotearoa, specifically on the North Island where we the Māori call tīka a Māori. This, I would like to tell you for those that don't know, we the Māori were the first to have superheroes. The world has the fantastic four we have Māori. Māori tikikiki a tāranga. Māori who was born in the top knot of his mother tāranga. You can take Māori full daylight savings for his home who slowed the sun down and gave us longer summers. Māori also went to the depths of our beautiful land to fix the fire so we may use it every day. But the story I would like to share is the story of how Māori caught this beautiful island tīka a Māori, the land we stand on today. So Māori was a demigod. His father was a god and his mother was from the earth. He was the youngest son of seven. His brothers were very jealous of Māori because he had special powers. One night as they were talking about their little house, their whare, Māori overheard his elder brothers talking about going fishing the next day. Māori quickly asked, can I come fishing? The brothers quickly said, no, you cannot come for they were jealous because Māori had special powers. Māori feeling hurt decided he would try and trick his brothers and so he pretended to go to sleep. When his brothers went to sleep he quickly jumped and he went and hit himself in the canoe for Māori had magical powers and one of those was to allow him to change the form of his shape. And so he turned himself in and hit himself on the canoe. The next morning the brothers awoke quickly to try and run away from Māori. They quickly hopped on to the canoe and begun the journey as they roamed out to their fishing spot. When Māori thought they were too far out at sea he appeared and showed himself to his brothers or the Chikipukanga. His brothers startle and said Māori, you trickster! How did you get on here? Right, they turned and noticed they had indeed been too far from the shore so they could not turn around. They told Māori he could stay but he would not do any fishing. So when they got to their fishing spot and the brothers began to fish Māori asked, may I have a fishing line? The brothers quickly turned him down and said no. Māori remembered that he had a magical hook that was gifted to him by his grandmother. He pulled out his magical drawbone hook and he fastened some kōrari or flax rope around. He still needed bait. He then turned to his brothers and asked, can I have some bait? Once again they denied him but Māori remembered he had something special himself. So he punched himself in the nose which made it bleed. He smeared the blood onto his hook for his bait. As he was casting out his line he began a karakia or prayer to the god of the sea, his uncle Tangaroa. Tangaroa humai te kahaki taku hi. My uncle, the god of the sea, Tangaroa, please favour my hook so I may catch a fish. Big enough to show my brothers that I deserve to be here. Though quicker had Māori thrown out the hook and it gone under the water when the fratting grabbed the hold of his line and a tug of war began. The fish went first. Māori pulled back and quickly came to the brothers. How do I do here? Talking to his brothers, he says I need your help. The brothers said, no Māori. You catch it, do you think you're the man? So Māori began his fight with this beautiful fish. He begun the toy and he called upon his ancestors o koi amite ika. He began to pull in the fish. Slowly he began to win the battle and the fish started to rise to the top of the sea. As it did this, the brothers quickly realised how big this fish was and they wanted to be parts and they quickly jumped on and began to help Māori pull the fish in. Māori realising that his uncle Tungaroa had not only given him a fish but it was a big, fresh big enough that it would feed many many people. He turned to his brothers and said brothers please do not touch the fish till I come back. I must go see Tungaroa. Tungaroa the god of the sea and thank him for this beautiful taunga o gift he has given us. Unfortunately, no quicker had Māori gone to do what he had said when his brothers once again turned on him and said we will not wait for Māori. Let's go and cut the fish up and say that it was us who caught this beautiful fish. So had they jumped out and started hacking at this beautiful fish Tungaroa the god of the sea watching and saw what happened and became very angry. So in his anger he turned this beautiful fish into land and rock. Those brothers were cast throughout the land and became statues or mountains that we all connect back to. And so we believe the land that we stand on right now, the North Island we called Ika a Māori. So if you look at a map you will see that the North Island looks like a spring ray with the tail up at the top of Cape Liana and the heat down the bottom at Pōneke or Wellington. This is the story of how the North Island became the Ika a Māori. The fish that Māori caught. Te Hei o Māoriwara. Help us continue our journey recording and sharing the music and stories of the world.