Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture part 2"The Maori Creation Story: The Separation of Heaven and Earth"                                       By Reyna Provencio, 1/13/12 Period 1                  Culture and Geography                          Source: George Grey, 1956, Polynesian Mythology (ed. by William W. Bird): Christchurch, Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd., 250p. (BL2615.G843p 1956)

   

(According to 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 forest and there inhabitants"

(2)Tawhirl-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"

"(6)and Rongo-ma-tane the father of cultivated food"

(5)Haumia-tikitiki the father of food that grows without cultivated"

"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.