Contemporary traditional Maori culture part 2 "The Maori creation story: The Separation of Heaven

and Earth" By Christian Frias, 1/26/12 Per:1 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 closely together, and all was

darkness.

"Rangi and Papa six sons: (1) Tane-mahuta, the father of the 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";

"(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