Pani-tinaku, often called simply Pani, is the mother of the kūmara. Her story is told in several versions, and tellings differ between iwi, hapū and whānau.
In many tellings her husband, Rongo-māui, went up to the sky to visit his elder brother Whānui, the star Vega. Whānui held the kūmara. Rongo-māui did not ask for it openly. He took it, hid it, and carried it down to the world. It came to Pani, and it was from her body that the kūmara was born.
She went to a stream named Mona-ariki and gave birth there to the first kūmara, the tubers of many kinds that the people would plant. The planting chants remember the names of her children. When kūmara are planted, Pani's name is still said in karakia before a tuber goes into the ground.
Because the seed was taken without permission, some tellings say Whānui sent the caterpillar down to attack the crop, which is why kūmara gardens must be watched and tended. This crop is not simply gathered. It asks for timing, careful work and attention through the seasons. Planting follows the stars and the maramataka (Māori lunar calendar). The pits where the harvest is stored are kept with care.
Pani is not remembered for a single dramatic act. She is remembered for a birth, and for a food that has fed people from Hawaiki to Aotearoa, season after season, for as long as it has been grown.
Hei whakaaro (reflect / thought): think of what in your life only grows if it is tended. Have you given it your attention this season?
Hei whakaaro · something to sit with
He kai te kūmara e tono ana kia tiakina, kia aroha, kia tika te wā.
Some things only grow if they are tended, season after season.
What needs your tending this season?