Directions in Māori: runga, raro, mauī, matau

Directions in Māori are given with a small set of position words: runga ‘up, on top’, raro ‘down, under’, mua ‘in front’, muri ‘behind’, roto ‘inside’, waho ‘outside’, mauī ‘left’ and matau ‘right’. They never change their form, and one pattern carries nearly all of them: Kei runga i te tēpu. ‘It’s on the table.’ Below are the words, how to put them in a sentence, the compass points (including why raro can mean north), and the phrases for asking and giving the way.

Updated 19 October 2026 · 9 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

The Māori position words

Ng is the sound in the middle of English singer, wh is usually said like f, and a vowel with a macron is held about twice as long. The sounds are set out in the Māori pronunciation guide.

Kei runga i te tēpu: how a position word works

Te Aka Māori Dictionary calls runga, raro, mua, muri, roto, waho and waenganui location words: they come straight after a small particle such as kei ‘at, now’, ki ‘to’ or i ‘at, in the past’, with no te ‘the’ in between. The thing they are measured against follows, joined by i. So a sentence is built in four steps:

The thing you are talking about comes last, which is the reverse of English. When it is obvious what the position is measured against, stop after the position word: Kei waho ngā tamariki. ‘The children are outside.’

Taha is the exception, because it is an ordinary noun, side, rather than a location word. It takes te in front and o ‘of’ after: kei te taha o te awa ‘beside the river’, literally at the side of the river. Left and right are said the same way: te taha mauī ‘the left-hand side’, te taha matau ‘the right-hand side’.

Moving there: ki in place of kei

For movement towards a position, ki replaces kei and everything else stays the same:

How kei, i and hei carry the time of a location, now, past and future, is covered in Māori sentence structure.

Above and below: ake and iho

Te Aka notes that runga is often followed by ake ‘upwards’ when it means above, and raro by iho ‘downwards’ when it means below. Its two examples use the body:

The rest of the body is in Māori body parts, and pointing at it while saying these sentences is a good way to learn both sets of words.

I or o after the position word?

Sources differ on two of the words. Both forms are in use, and neither is a mistake.

Left and right in Māori: mauī and matau

Left is mauī and right is matau. Te Aka also gives katau for right, so both ki matau and ki katau mean to the right. Your left hand is tōku ringa mauī.

Two near-spellings are worth separating, and the macrons do it:

• mauī, left, has its long vowel at the end. Māui, who in the narratives fished up the North Island, has it at the start. Te Aka lists them as separate words, and this page makes no claim that one comes from the other.
• matau, right, is also the word for a fish hook, a separate entry in Te Aka. mātau, with a long ā, is a different word again: to know, to understand. A learner who hears matau in a set of directions can be sure it is the side, not knowledge.

Front and back are also past and future

Two of the position words are time words as well. Te Aka gives mua as the front and also the past, former, and muri as the rear and also the future, after:

Runga and raro have a travel sense too. After mā ‘by way of’, runga is used for travelling in a vehicle and raro means on foot: mā runga pahi ‘by bus’, mā raro ‘on foot’.

North, south, east and west in Māori

Each of these is in Te Aka with the meaning given. Several have a second life: raki also means dry, uru also means to enter, and hauāuru is the west wind as well as the west. The in-between points join two words with mā ‘and’: raki-mā-rāwhiti ‘north-east’, tonga-mā-uru ‘south-west’. Wind directions put hau ‘wind’ in front: hau tonga ‘a southerly’.

You will meet the words in regional names. Te Aka gives Te Tai Tokerau for Northland, Te Tai Rāwhiti for the East Coast of the North Island, and Te Tai Hauāuru for its West Coast, and quotes a 1922 call to gather that names all four quarters: E te Tokerau, e te Tonga, e te Tai Rāwhiti, e te Hauāuru ‘People of the North, South, East and West’.

Why raro can mean north

Te Aka lists the north as one of the meanings of raro, the word for down, and the south as one of the meanings of runga, the word for up. Its example has people flying from Auckland to Wellington up:

This matches a way of seeing the country with the south at the top. Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, prints a map of Māui’s names for the land that it describes as drawn from a Māori point of view, with Te Waka-a-Māui ‘the canoe of Māui, the South Island’ at the top, ki runga, and Te Ika-a-Māui ‘the fish of Māui, the North Island’ at the bottom, ki raro. In 2024 Dean Whaanga, a trustee of Te Rūnaka o Awarua in Southland, told Te Ao Māori News that “for mana whenua south was up and north was down”. Going north in this sense is going whakararo ‘downwards, northwards’, and going south is going whakarunga ‘upwards, southwards’. The names of the two islands are explained in Māori place names.

Asking and giving directions

Kei hea asks where something is. The answer uses the position words above, plus three for the way there.

Tōtika is straight and huri is to turn. Te Aka also records a second way to say the turns, huri whakamauī ‘turn left’ and huri whakakatau ‘turn right’, and its example of a full set of directions uses both:

Ara rīpeka is a crossroads, and the atu after haere tōtika is the direction word explained next.

Mai and atu: towards you and away

Māori marks which way a movement goes relative to the speaker. Te Aka defines mai as this way, towards the speaker, and atu as away from the speaker, and also onwards after a verb of motion.

The same word haere ‘go, come’ means come or go depending on which one follows it. Homai and hoatu are the same pair built into one word: give it to me, give it away from me.

Directions for the classroom

Position words are taught early because they can be acted out. A few ways to use them:

• Look where I say. Titiro ki runga. ‘Look up.’ Titiro ki raro. ‘Look down.’ Titiro ki mauī. ‘Look left.’ Titiro ki matau. ‘Look right.’
• Hide the book. Put a book somewhere in the room and ask Kei hea te pukapuka? ‘Where is the book?’ The answer is one position: Kei runga i te tēpu., Kei raro i te tūru. ‘Under the chair.’, Kei roto i te pouaka. ‘In the box.’
• Inside or outside? Kei roto rānei, kei waho rānei? ‘Inside, or outside?’ can be asked about anything in or out of the classroom.
• Give directions round the room. One learner walks while the others call Haere tōtika!, Huri ki mauī! and Huri ki matau! until they reach the book.

More ideas are in te reo for teachers and Māori for kids, and another set of words that can be pointed at is Māori colours. Verbavia’s te reo Māori course teaches the position words, asking the way and the direction particles in its lessons, free on the web.

Sources

1. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: runga — the top, on, on top of; above, up; travel in a vehicle after mā; the south (with the example of flying from Auckland ki runga to Wellington). Also runga ake.
2. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: raro — the bottom, under; below, down; by foot after mā; the north. Also raro iho.
3. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: mua — the front, in front of; the past, former.
4. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: muri — the rear, behind; the future, after; north, the place of departed spirits.
5. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: roto — the inside, in, within; waho — the outside, out (with the example ki waho o tō mātau whare).
6. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: waenganui — the middle, between (with the example kei waenganui o te whare me te taiepa).
7. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: taha — side, margin, edge, beside (a noun).
8. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: mauī — left hand, left side; ringa mauī; Māui as a separate entry.
9. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: matau — right; fish hook (separate entry); mātau — to know, understand.
10. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: katau — on the right hand, the right side.
11. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tata — to be near; tawhiti — to be distant, the distance.
12. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: raki — north (also dry); raki-mā-rāwhiti and the other compound points.
13. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tokerau — north; Te Tai Tokerau; the 1922 example naming the four quarters.
14. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tonga — south, south wind; hau tonga.
15. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: rāwhiti — east; Te Tai Rāwhiti.
16. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: uru — west (also to enter); hauāuru — west, west wind; Te Tai Hauāuru.
17. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: whakararo — downwards, northwards; whakarunga — south, upwards.
18. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: whakamauī — towards the left, with the example of directions using huri whakakatau, huri whakamauī and haere tōtika atu.
19. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tōtika — straight; huri — to turn; huri whakakatau — to turn right.
20. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: mai — this way, towards the speaker; atu — away from the speaker, onwards after verbs of motion.
21. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Māui i Aotearoa (map, Māori-language edition): “he mahere whenua tēnei i te tirohanga Māori, arā, ko Te Waka-a-Māui ki runga, ko Te Ika-a-Māui ki raro”.
22. Te Ao Māori News (11 April 2024): Motupōhue waka will mark the true top of Aotearoa, rūnaka says — Dean Whaanga: “for mana whenua south was up and north was down”.