Lani was more properly called Rangi in New Zealand. In Hawaii, the sky god is named Wakea . Wakea , literally, the great way to Wakea's navel. Read legends from other cultures about the creation of the universe. Follow up by having students make up their own legend to explain the stars, sun and planets.
Students can present their legend in storytelling format or as an illustrated storyboard.
Figure 7 depicts how the canoe Uluao could be visualized among the stars of the constellation Scorpius . We call the brightest star in this constellation Antares . In New Zealand this brilliant orange star was called Rehua , the lehua blossom of the ohia tree. Have the class read the legend of how Maui fished the Hawaiian Islands up from the ocean with this magical hook. Distribute copies of the star map illustrated in Figure 8 to the class.