In Māori tradition the marks on the Moon are Rona, a woman who cursed the Moon for going behind a cloud while she fetched water. The Moon took her, and she is up there still with her calabash and the tree she grabbed.

It is the standard reading of the lunar markings across much of Polynesia, and the same figure is used as a warning about temper. Māori tradition also keeps the maramataka, a lunar calendar naming each of about thirty nights of the month and saying which are good for planting or fishing — a working almanac rather than a story.