Mahuika is a Māori

Maori mythology

Māori mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be divided...

 fire deity. Generally, Mahuika is female. In some versions, she is the younger sister of Hine-nui-te-pō

Hine-nui-te-po

Hine-nui-te-pō is a goddess of night and death and the ruler of the underworld in Māori mythology. She is a daughter of Tāne. She fled to the underworld because she discovered that Tāne, whom she had married, was also her father. The red colour of sunset comes from her.All of the children of Rangi...

, goddess of death. It was from her that Māui

Maui (Maori mythology)

In Māori mythology, Māui is a culture hero famous for his exploits and his trickery.-Māui's birth:The offspring of Tū increased and multiplied and did not know death until the generation of Māui-tikitiki . Māui is the son of Taranga, the wife of Makeatutara...

 (in some versions he is her grandson) obtained the secret of making fire

Fire

Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....

. She married Auahi-Turoa and together they had five children, named for the five fingers on the human hand, called collectively Ngā Mānawa

Nga Manawa

Ngā Mānawa, in a tradition of the Ngāti Awa, a Māori tribe of the eastern Bay of Plenty in New Zealand's North Island, was the collective name for the Fire Children, the five sons of Mahuika and Auahitūroa...

. The symbolism of this connection between fingers and fire is revealed in the stories where Māui obtains fire from Mahuika by tricking her into giving him her fingernails, one by one.

She is also said to have played a role in the formation of Rangitoto island, asking Mataoho, god of earthquakes and eruptions to destroy a couple that had cursed her.

In some parts of New Zealand, Mahuika is a male deity. This is also the case in some parts of tropical Polynesia; for instance, in the Tuamotu archipelago and the Marquesas, Mahu-ika is the fire god who lives in the underworld in addition to being the grandfather of Maui. Maui wrestled him in order to win the secret of making fire.

In other parts of Polynesia, similar deities are known as Mafui'e, Mafuike, Mahui'e or Mahuike.