Io Matua Kore

{{short description|Supreme being in Polynesian native religion}}

{{Infobox deity

| type = Polynesian

| name = Io-matua-kore

| god_of = Creator of creators; Parentless one; Supreme being

| image =

| caption =

| other_names = {{hlist|Io-nui|Io-matua-te-kore|Io-te-waiora-o-ngā-mea-katoa|Io-taketake-o-ngā-mea-katoa|Io-matua-o-ngā-mea-katoa|Io-wānanga-o-ngā-rangi|}}

| cult_centre =

| symbol =

| consort =

| parents =

| siblings =

| offspring =

| gender = Male

| equivalent1_type =

| equivalent1 =

| equivalent2_type =

| equivalent2 =

| region = Polynesia

| ethnic_group =

}}

Io Matua Kore is often understood as the supreme being in Polynesian native religion, particularly of the Māori people.

Io does seem to be present in the mythologies of other Polynesian islands including Hawai‘i, the Society Islands, and the Cook Islands.{{cite web|url=https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=Io|title=Io|last=Moorfield|first=John C|author-link=John Moorfield|website=Māori Dictionary|access-date=15 June 2020}} He, or somebody else with his name, appears as a great-grandson of Tiki, and a father of another Io-rangi in Moriori mythology.{{cite book|last=Tregear|first=Edward|authorlink=Edward Tregear|date=1891|title=The Maori-Polynesian comparative dictionary|url=https://archive.org/details/maoripolynesian01treggoog/page/n134/mode/2up|location=Wellington|publisher=Lyon and Blair|access-date=15 June 2020}}{{rp|106, 669}}

Controversy

Io was first known generally with the publication in 1913 of Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury's book,{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} translated by Percy Smith as The Lore of the Whāre-wananga.{{Cite book|last=Whatahoro|first=Hoani Te|authorlink=Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury|translator-last=Smith|translator-first=S. Percy|translator-link=Percy Smith (ethnologist)|year=2011|orig-year=1913|title=The Lore of the Whare-wānanga: Or Teachings of the Maori College on Religion, Cosmogony, and History|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/lww/index.htm|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108040099|language=en}} The idea that the Io represented a pre-Christian understanding of "God" much like the Christian God would be propagated by Elsdon Best in his Maori Religion and Mythology.{{Cite book|last=Best|first=Elsdon|author-link=Elsdon Best|year=2005|orig-year=1924|title=Māori Religion and Mythology: Being an Account of the Cosmogony, Anthropogeny, Religious Beliefs and Rites, Magic and Folk Lore of the Māori Folk of New Zealand|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZLXAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Te Papa Press|isbn=9781877385063|language=en}}

The Io tradition was initially rejected by scholars including prominent Māori scholar Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck), who wrote, "The discovery of a supreme God named Io in New Zealand was a surprise to Māori and Pākehā alike."{{Cite book|last=Hiroa|first=Te Rangi|author-link=Te Rangi Hīroa|date=1949|title=The Coming of the Maori|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5G8ZnQEACAAJ|location=Wellington|publisher=Maori Purposes Fund Board|language=en}} Buck believed that the Io tradition was restricted to the Ngāti Kahungunu as a response to Christianity. Jonathan Z. Smith questions the motives behind the existence of such a book,{{clarify|date=March 2018}} seeing this as a questionable emphasis of the idea around the Io.{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Jonathan Z.|date=1982|title=Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d65YElEIK3AC|publisher=University of Chicago Press|pages=68–71|isbn=9780226763606|language=en}} Others such as James Cox argues that this "pre-Christian" understanding of a supreme god may in fact be due to the earlier Mormon missionary activities.{{Cite book|last=Cox|first=James|date=2014|title=The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0qPBAAAQBAJ|publisher=Routledge|pages=35–66|isbn=9781317546030|language=en}}

References

Category:Māori gods

Category:Creator gods

Io Matua Kore

Controversy

See also

References