Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture Part 2  

"The Maori Creation Story: The Separation of Heaven and Earth"

By: Benjamin Perez, 1/23/12Period 4 Culture and Geography

 

(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 together, 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-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 of an extremely long time, able only to wonder what light and vision might be like.