 In Ngāti Awa traditions, Rongo is a son of Tāne and father of the kumara, but a man named Rongo-māui travels to Whānui, from whom he steals the kumara and returns to Earth with it.Small statues representing Rongo were once placed alongside kumara fields.In southern Cook Islands mythology, Rongo was the god of agriculture and one of the children of Vatea (sky father) and Papa (earth mother).