Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture , part 2

The Maori Creation Story :The separation of Heaven and earth

By Dewen yu2012-1-19period 4  

 culture and Geography

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 forests and their inhabitants 

(2)Tawhiri-ma-tea the father of food that 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 cultivated food 

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

 

In the beginning these six sons and a;; other lived in darkness for an extremely long time able only to wonder what light and vision might be like