Story summary
Soil types
Oneone means soil. Māori gardeners had at least 30 names for types of soil, including:
- one-pū – sand
- one-nui – rich soil made of clay, sand and organic matter
- one-matua – loam.
Growing food
Māori preferred light, sandy soil for growing kūmara (sweet potato). Sometimes they added sand or gravel to improve drainage.
Taro was grown in damp soil.
Weeds and ash were spread on the soil as fertiliser.
Using clay
Red ochre, found in clay, was baked in a fire and mixed with shark oil. It was painted on chiefs’ faces and bodies, or on carved houses or canoes.
Taioma was a white paint made by burning clay and mixing it with oil.
Uku was a white or bluish clay, used like soap.
Creation stories
In Māori tradition, Papatūānuku was the earth mother. The god Tāne formed the first human from soil – in some stories this was a woman called Hineahuone, in others a man called Tiki-āhua.
Canoe stories
Early Māori explorers who arrived on canoes from Polynesia were interested in the soils of their new home:
- The great navigator Kupe went back to Hawaiki and told of the sweet-scented and rich soils of New Zealand.
- Turi, captain of the Aotea canoe, decided to settle at Pātea after smelling its fertile soil.
- The sons of Whātonga from the Kurahaupō canoe decided to move to Matiu island in Wellington Harbour because the soil was good and the island was easy to defend.
Soil symbolism
Sacred soil or sand was sometimes buried or put in an important place – such as under the altar of a church.
When a baby is born, its placenta (whenua in Māori) is buried in the earth (also called whenua).
A person dying on enemy land after a battle sometimes called for some soil from their home to weep over.
