Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture,part 2

The Maori Creation story:

The Separation of Heaven and Earth

By:JESSICA CEBALLOS.1/13/12period1 Culture and GEOGRAPHY

George Grey,1956,Polynesian Mythology (ed. by William W. Bird): Chrischurch, Whitcombe and Tombs ltd., 250 p. (BL 2615.G843p 195); and Mr.Ruben Meza,

2012

All humans are desended from one pair of ancestors, Rangi and Papa, who are also called Heaven and

Earth.

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

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

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

(3) Tangaroa, the father of fish and reptiles

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

(5) Haumia-tik, 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 times, 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 we are fierce and have war, why we eat the plants and animals, and why there are

storms.