NOTE - THIS PROTO-PAGE IS STILL IN THE EARLY STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION!

The hue (calabash gourd, Lagenaria sicareria) was almost certainly introduced from South America into Polynesia by Polynesian explorers some time after contact with Western Polynesia was lost, but while communication between the Marquesas, Tahiti and Rapanui (Easter Island) was still being maintained. There is more information about that in the page about the Proto Eastern Polynesian source word (linked at the top of this page).

I have had an interest in these plants ever since I first encountered them in the 1950s, and was given some seeds of one of the Maori varieties, accompanied by directions for the care of the plants and their fruit, and strict admonitions to respect their sacred quality, by the Dutch artist Theo Schoon who spent many years learning about traditional Maori art and design by living in Maori communities, and who among many other things played a major part in reviving interest in the growing, conservation, and artistic possibilities of the hue. Unfortunately, my parents moved from our family home in Russell to Auckland about the time I left for Hawaii in 1965, and although some of the seeds were kept for me, they were no longer viable by the time I returned more than six years later. However, when I became Director of the James Henare Mäori Research Centre at the University of Auckland in 1999, Dante Bonica, who taught traditional Maori art and artisanship at the University, gave me seeds of the hue he was cultivating, and we have been growing them in Te Mära Reo, where the photographs illustrating this page have been taken, ever since.

The importance of the gourd up until the nineteenth century is underlined by the large number of words in classical Maori for kinds of gourds, stages of growth, and things made from or associated with its fruit. The list below is probably not exhaustive, but includes most of those recorded in the Williams Dictionary.

Mäori names for varieties of Lagenaria gourds

Variety used for bowls:

mänukaroa

Variety used for ceremonial calabashes:

paretarakihi (a large variety)

Varieties used for making containers for specific uses:

püau (for preserved birds)
... also, possibly
whängai-rangatira ("feed the chief")
wharehinu ("oil house")

Unspecified varieties:

arero-uru
whakahaumatua
ikaroa (also a name for the Milky Way)
ikaroa a Rauru
kökakoware
omoomo
pahaua
Pütëhue (also the personification of the gourd -- see comment in the right-hand column)
upokotaipu ~ upokotaupu

Mäori words for stages of growth and treatment of gourds.

Growth and development:

whakarau (treat gourd seeds to get them to germinate by soaking them in water and applying gentle heat)
pätangaroa (the seedling leaves [cotyledons])
tara (to put forth the second pair of leaves)
rautara (The third leaf of a seedling gourd after the cotyledons [the tara leaf])
pütauhinu ~ pütaihinu (fourth leaf of a seedling gourd)
tautototoro (to throw out runners)
uma (a plant that has put out all its leaves)
whänaua (be brought forth -- see note in the column opposite)

Parts of the plant and fruit:

emiemi (bract at the footstalk of a gourd)
karu ~ karukaru ~ pukahu (spongy matter enclosing the seeds)
kautahu (runners of the gourd, also tributaries of a river)
käwai ~ käwei (runners of a gourd, also lines of descent)
kïwai ~ kïwei (runners of a gourd, also loop or handle of a basket)
köngutu (stalk end of a gourd, also mouth of a river)
köpuka (the soft pulp around the seed)
kotawa (fruit when young and edible)
maupu (fruit growing near the base of the plant)
rewa (fruit growing near the end of a runner
taunuke (stalk)
wene (a shoot or runner)
wenewene (a general term for gourds and other creeping plants)

Treatment of fruit:

kärure (scoop out the pith)

Mäori words for calabashes & vessels made from gourds

Calabashes in general: :

kähaka
kia
kiaka
kimi
köaka
koki
pahaua
tawä ~ tawhä

Calabashes with special qualities or uses:

höteo (large)
hue kautu (gourd shaped like a carafe)
hue kiato (gourd used as a water vessel)
ipu (a calabash with a narrow mouth)
käraha ~ kararaha ~ karahe (wide mouth)
kärure (small calabash or vessel)
kina ("sea urchin" - a globular calabash)
kömutu ~koromutu (with top cut off and used as a lid)
kotimutu (with small end cut so as to form a bottle)
pähaka (calabash of medium size)
päpapa-koura ("crayfish shell" - calabash & bowl made from a slice of calabash)
tahä ~ tahë (with a narrow mouth)
takawai ~ wai (used as a water bottle)

Calabash parts and accoutrements:

hörere (wooden mouthpiece attached to a calabash)
ngutu (rim of a vessel, mouthpiece of calabash)
matua (body of a calabash, to which the paewae was fixed)
paewae (the wooden mouthpiece for a calabash, "often handsomely carved")
titi (the wooden collar or mouthpiece for the calabash)
tuki (carved wooden mouthpiece for a calabash, pükaea or pütara)

Dishes and other artefacts made from parts of calabashes:

hakehake (a small vessell made by cutting a gourd
pararaha (a shallow dish made by slicing a gourd)
ipu pararaki (a dish made by cutting a slice of a skull or gourd)
porotiti ~ porotïtiti (a small top made from a piece of a gourd with a peg inserted in it)
pötaka hue (a top made from a small or medium sized gourd by cutting holes in the side to remove the seeds, then inserting a stake through the stalk end and out through the emiemi; when it is spun the air whirling through the holes makes a loud humming sound)

Other calabash-related terms:

rüruru tahä (a bundle of calabashes tied together for carrying; also a metaphor for loud thunder)