Editing Ruatapu (section)

{{Short description|Master canoeist in Polynesian tradition}}
{{For|the town|Ruatapu, New Zealand}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox deity <!-- Not the correct infobox. = -->
| type         = Polynesian
| name         = Ruatapu

| other_names  = ruatapu
| gender       = Male
| region       = [[Polynesia]]
| ethnic_group = [[Māori people|Māori]], [[Cook Islanders#Ethnicity|Cook Islands Māori]]
| cult_centre  = 
| symbol       = <!-- or | symbols = -->
| consort      = Uanukukaiatia/Uanukutapu, Tapotuki Tonga, Tutunoa (Cook Islands)
| offspring    = Tamaiva, Moenau, Kirikava, Te Arauenua, Te Urutupui, Tongirau, Touketa (Cook Islands)<br>Hau (Māori)<ref name="Tainui">{{cite web |url=http://jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_55_1946/Volume_55%2C_No._3/Ngai-Tahu%3A_notes_relating_to%2C_by_Rahera_Tainui%2C_p_221-235/p1 |title=Ngai-Tahu, Notes Relating to, By Rahera Tainui, P 221-235 |last=Tainui |first=Rahera |date=1946 |publisher= [[Polynesian Society]]|page=233 |access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref>
| parents      = [[Uenuku#Other characters|Uanuku Rakeiora]]/[[Uenuku#Other characters|Uenuku]], Unnamed slave woman (Māori)
| siblings     = Taiē, Ina, (Cook Islands) [[Paikea]], Ira<ref name="PolySoc06-75">{{cite journal |date=1906 |title=The Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. XV, 1906 |url=https://archive.org/details/journalpolynesi07zgoog/page/n94 |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society Containing the Transactions and Proceedings of the Society |volume=15 |pages=75–76 |access-date=20 April 2020}}</ref>
}}

'''Ruatapu'''  was a son of the [[ariki|great chief]] [[Uenuku#Other characters|Uenuku]], and a master canoeist in [[Polynesian narrative|Polynesian tradition]] who is said to have lived around 30 generations ago. Most [[Māori people|Māori]] stories agree he was an older half-brother of [[Paikea]] and 69 other sons, while traditions recorded from the [[Cook Islands]] sometimes state he was [[Uenuku#Other characters|Uanuku Rakeiora]]'s only son.

In the oral traditions of the Cook Islands, Ruatapu travels around central Polynesia; from the [[Society Islands]], to the Cook Islands, and lastly to [[Tonga]] before coming back to the Cook Islands to live out the rest of his days and eventually die at [[Aitutaki]]. Most traditions record him as a prominent ancestor, gaining three wives between the last two groups of islands.