Avaiki
/a.vaˈi.ki/noun
Avaiki is the ancestral homeland of the gods and first ancestors in several Polynesian traditions, especially those of the Cook Islands.
Did you know?Avaiki is cognate with names such as Māori Hawaiki, Hawaiian Hawaiʻi, and Savaiʻi, suggesting a shared Polynesian memory of an ancestral homeland.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Polynesian (reconstructed)
Proto-Polynesian
*Sawaiki
“Reconstructed name for an ancestral homeland or place of origin; the exact original sense remains debated.”
Proto-Eastern Polynesian (reconstructed)
Proto-Eastern Polynesian
*Hawaiki
“Ancestral homeland preserved in the developing Eastern Polynesian tradition.”
Traditional Polynesian period
Polynesian languages
Hawaiki / Avaiki
“Mythic homeland from which ancestors, gods, or culture heroes were believed to have originated.”
19th Century
Māori
Hawaiki
“The ancestral homeland in Māori oral tradition and recorded mythology.”
19th Century
Rarotongan
ʻAvaiki
“The ancestral or underworld homeland in Cook Islands traditions, including accounts associated with Mangaia and Rarotonga.”
Modern English
English
Avaiki
“A Polynesian mythological place-name used in ethnographic, historical, and cultural writing.”