 He has a miraculous birth – his mother threw her premature infant into the sea wrapped in a tress of hair from her topknot (tikitiki) – hence Māui is known as Māui-tikitiki-a-Taranga.Ocean spirits find and wrap the child in seaweed.His divine ancestor, Tama-nui-te-rā (or Rangi) then takes the child and nourishes him to adolescence.