Contemporary Traditional Maori Culture, part 2"The Maori Creation Story: The Separation of Heaven

and Earth"By: Alyssa Garcia, January 18 2012

Period 1 Culture and GeographyGeorge Grey, 1956, Polynesian Mythology (ed. by

William W. Bird):Chrischurch, Whitecombe and Tombs Ltd.250 p.(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 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 civilization."

(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 only able

to  wonder what light and vision might be like."