Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture, part 2

"The Maroi Creation Story: The Seperation of Heaven

and Earth"By Daniel rodarte,1/17/12 Period 8 Culture and Geograghy

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 the 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-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