the maori creation_story
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fighokhjlTRANSCRIPT
Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture, part2 "The Maori Creation Story: The Separation
of Heaven and Earth
By Shu Guan, 01-19-2012, Period4,Culture and Geography
Source:George Grey, 1956, Polynesian Mythology:Christchurch, Whitcombe and Tombs
Ltd., 250 p. and Mr. Ruben Meza, 2012
"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-matauenga, the father of forests 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-tikitiki, the father of food that grows without cultivation.
(6)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.