Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture, part 2 "The Maori Creation Story: The Separation of Heaven and Earth"

By Amanda Parada, January 19,2012Period 8 Culture and Geography 

Source: George Grey, 1956, Polynesian Mythology (ed. by William W. Bird): Christchurch, Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd.,250 p. (BL 2615.G843p 1956);

and Mr. Ruben Meza, 2012

(According to the Maori tradition) All humans are descended from one pair of ancestors, Rangi and

Papa, who are also called Heaven and Earth. 

In those days, Heaven and Earth clung closely together, and all was darkness. 

Rangi and Papa had six sons: (1) Tane- mahuta, the father of the the forests and their inhabitants;

(2)Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of winds and storms;

(3) , the father of fish and reptiles;

(4) Tu- matauenga, the father of fierce human beings; 

(5)Haumia-tikitiki, the father of food that grows without cultivation; 

(8) and Rongo-ma-tane, the father of cultivated food.

In the Beginning these six sons and all other beings lived in darkness for an extremely long time, able only to wonder what light and vision

might be like

After a battle between the six sons, Tu-matauenga ate 4 of his brothers  as food, sparing Tawhiri-ma-tea,

the father of winds and storms

This is why today people are fierce and have war, why people eat plants and animals, and why there

are storms