The rituals, beliefs, and general worldview of Māori society were ultimately based on an elaborate mythology that had been inherited from a Polynesian homeland (Hawaiki) and adapted and developed in the new setting. Alongside different Polynesian cultures having different versions of a given tradition, often the same story for a character, event, or object will have many different variations for every , , or individual who retells it, meaning there is never a fixed or 'correct' version of any particular story.