"Lament." Writing in New Zealand: No. 4 Poetry. E. H. McCormick. Post-Primary School Bulletin 1.6. Wellington, N.Z.: Dept. of Education, 1947.
The ‘Notes on the poems’ accompanying this collection of poetry, state that the ‘original Māori version of this poem will be found on page 22 of Polynesian Literature: Māori Poetry, ed. Johannes C. Andersen.’ ‘Mr Andersen comments: ‘In the lament [Te Ihu-nui-o-Tonga] is pictured as sitting on the hill-top, with the dwellings of her peope about her, looking out over the ocean, personified as Hine-moana, and bidding farewell to the spirit of her daughter, departing by way of Tawhiti-nui and Tawhiti-pamamao, wayside resting-places of her ancestor when they were leisurely immigrating, from generation to generation, from the hidden fatherland of the long-ago. She goes to Te Hono-i-wairua, on the sacred mountain of the great land of Irihia, which it was at one time thought might be India, to Hawaiki-rangi, wherein meets the spirits of the dead ere passing on to the two spirit-worlds. She urges her child to ascent with care the whirlwind path by which Tane of old ascended to the uppermost of the twelve heavens, to enter the precincts of Te Rauroha, a division in the upper-most of the heavens, and Rangiatea, the most tapu house or temple, there to be welcomed by the marei-kura, female denizens of that realm, the realm of Io, the supreme being, where all thought and remembrance of this word would cease.’

Thomson, John. New Zealand Literature to 1977: A Guide to Information Sources. Vol. 30 in the American Literature, English Literature, and World Literatures in English Information Guide Ser. Detroit, USA: Gale Research, 1980. 49.

Te Ihu-nui-o-Tonga