Ru (Aitutaki)

Ru is in the oral tradition of Aitutaki, one of the ancestors founders of the island. Often described like the first man with being come to settle there, its migration would have preceded that by Te Erui and Ruatapu. Many accounts are devoted to him which although sometimes contradictory, present nevertheless a certain number of common elements and more generally a total coherence.

Ru origins

Ru would be originating in Tupuaki. Undoubtedly it is about Tubua' I with the islands Australes, although it is always necessary to be wary concerning the Polynesian tradition of the too obvious toponymic analogies. The island being over-populated and food has suddenly missed, Ru would have decided to build a double dugout to leave to research new grounds. He baptized the Nga-Puariki dugout. He proposed then with his four younger brothers (Tai-you-ruffle-iva, Tai-you-ruffle-varu, Veri-Tuamaro and Ru-Takina) and his four wives (Dad-kura, Kipapa-I.E.(internal excitation)-tared, You Ararau-enua, Ruiaau) to accompany it. Itself not being a chief of Tupuaki, it asked for the ariki island of be able to choose 20 or according to the versions 24 their girls (Tapairu).

The crossing and the installation of Ru on Aitutaki

After long and difficult crossing during which Ru had to face storms and giant waves, the dugout arrived for a ground that he baptized according to the versions " Utataki" , " Ararau" even sometimes " Ara' ura". As for the name of Aitutaki, it would have been given more tardily by Te Erui.

On its arrival, the island would have been uninhabited. It installed Tapairu (girls of chiefs embarked on its dugout), on the whole of the island, their informant who they were " like plaits on the ground, on which the men of the dugouts which would not fail to arrive thereafter could lie ". Current the Mataiapo of the island would go down from these Tapairu.

The Ru descent

If Ru had a descent from its four wives, the many genealogies relating to it are very often contradictory. Nevertheless, it would be one of them which some generations later would have accommodated or would have been made kill by Te Erui of which one of the descendants, Taruia, would have been also driven out thereafter by the arrival of a new dugout ordered by Ruatapu. The four ariki current of Aitutaki would be remainder resulting from Ruatapu.

According to the tradition of Aitutaki, the Ru brothers named higher, would have as for them builds a dugout, called " Te Pito O Araura" (the navel of Aitutaki) before leaving towards the south. They would have unloaded in the area of Tauranga (New Zealand), before continuing towards the interior of the grounds until Rotorua. The tribe maori of the Te Arawa would go down from these migrants originating in Aitutaki.

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