A couple days ago the subject of Taniwha popped up on Cryptomundo, so I thought it would be a good time to write about the subject to.Taniwha were creatures that lived in the oceans, lakes and rivers. They appear in many different forms, whales, sharks, lizards and even as logs or driftwood. Mostly they were guardians of the people who associated themselves with them and would help the people out sometimes, giving warnings and such, but you did have to respect the creatures even if they were your guardian. Taniwha had the power to change the surrounding landscape and if you were closely associated with one you could possibly become one yourself.
There are many stories of Taniwha, most tribes had their own. When Maori arrived in New Zealand on various waka (canoes) from Hawaiki some were accompanied by Taniwha, in the case of my ancestry the waka Tainui had a Taniwha swim with it from Hawaiki, it was in the form of a whale.
I consider Taniwha to be natural beings, not so much supernatural, mainly because they appear to be actually living, breathing animals, whales and sharks, even dolphins. What's a little different is the inland ones which appear more reptile like with spines running down their backs, like a tuatara only the size of a whale, could they be stories of dinosaurs or crocodiles?
An example from recent times is the story of Pelorus Jack, a dolphin who would escort ships through Cook Strait in New Zealand, the Strait is dangerous in certain areas and Pelorus Jack would regularly appear escorting ships for over 20 years before the last sighting in 1912. I think Jack was given the title of Taniwha, but I'm not to sure on that.
You can't really liken them to Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster, they're more like tales of dragons, they usually have a relationship to the environmental conditions and the stories usually come with knowledge that pertains to it's location that is valuable to people of that area. Take for example one of my tribes Taniwha, it appears as driftwood acting strangely out at sea, if you see it it could be an omen of danger, I take this to mean changing currents, bad weather on the way etc. My tribe has a few others that follow the same common sense approach.
I guess if you take the Pelorus Jack story into account, Taniwha don't seem so cryptid after all, just stories about creatures that the people of the time had an affinity with and had lessons that could be passed on.
