Tū-te-wehiwehi

In Māori genealogical cosmology Tū-te-wehiwehi is a son of Punga and a descendant of Tangaroa, the sea atua. During the cosmogonic episode following the separation of Rangi and Papa, Tāwhirimātea made war on his brothers with storms; Tū-te-wehiwehi and his brother Ikatere disputed what to do and fled to different domains—Ikatere to the sea to become ancestor of fishes, and Tū-te-wehiwehi to the forest where he fathered lizards. His placement within whakapapa makes him the named ancestor of terrestrial reptiles.

The consulted sources do not supply a consistent physical description, depiction, or iconography for Tū-te-wehiwehi. What is recorded about his character and identity comes through genealogical connections and named descendants (for example, an offspring called Uenuku is recorded as a lesser reptile atua). Thus the available descriptive detail is limited to his role and relationships within mythic genealogy rather than to corporeal or symbolic appearance.

Sources attribute to Tū-te-wehiwehi a genealogical and domain role: he is the progenitor of reptiles and an atua associated with the forest and terrestrial habitats of lizards. Beyond this ancestral and classificatory function, the consulted texts do not ascribe specific magical powers, interventions, routine behaviors, or other abilities to him. His notable action in narratives is participating with Ikatere in the flight from Tāwhirimātea's storms, which results in the separation of species into distinct realms.