In 2002, a New Zealand tribe used the Resource Management Act to halt State Highway 1 in order to protect the home of a taniwha manifesting as a large white eel, and the national highway authority ultimately rerouted the road. This episode explores how these powerful entities of Maori mythology travelled from Polynesian voyaging lore into modern courtrooms, starting with the Proto-Oceanic root word tanifa, which simply meant a shark, and tracing how its meaning shifted across Tongan, Samoan, Tokelauan, and Hawaiian traditions before settling in Aotearoa.

The conversation describes the taniwha's many forms, from whales and sharks to geckos, tuatara, and logs that move against the current, and explains how the traditions credit them with carving Wellington Harbour, Lake Waikaremoana, and the Hokianga. It examines their dual nature as kaitiaki ...