Mariah @ Tamaki Primary School: July 2019

Ranginui and Papatūānuku are the primordial parents,
the sky father and the earth mother who lie locked
together in a tight embrace. They have many children
all of whom are male, who are forced to live in the
cramped darkness between them. These children grow
and discuss among themselves what it would be like to
live in the light. Tūmatauenga, the fiercest of the children,
proposes that the best solution to their predicament is to
kill their parents .

But his brother Tāne disagrees, suggesting that it is better
to push them apart, to let Ranginui be as a stranger to
them in the sky above while Papatūānuku will remain
below to nurture them. The others put their plans into
action Rongo, the god of cultivated food, tries to push his
parents apart, then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and his
sibling Haumia-tiketike, the god of wild food, join him. In
spite of their joint efforts Rangi and Papa remain close
together in their loving embrace. After many attempts
Tāne, god of forests and birds, forces his parents apart.
Instead of standing upright and pushing with his hands
as his brothers have done, he lies on his back and pushes
with his strong legs. Stretching every sinew Tāne pushes
and pushes until, with cries of grief and surprise, Ranginui
and Papatūānuku were pried apart And so the children of
Ranginui and Papatūanuku see light and have space to
move for the first time. While the other children have
agreed to the separation Tāwhirimātea, the god of
storms and winds, is angered that the parents have
been torn apart. He cannot bear to hear the cries of his
parents nor see the tears of Ranginui as they are parted,
he promises his siblings that from henceforth they will
have to deal with his anger. He flies off to join Rangi and
there carefully fosters his own many offspring who
include the winds, one of whom is sent to each quarter
of the compass. To fight his brothers, Tāwhirimātea
gathers an army of his children winds and clouds of
different kinds, including fierce squalls, whirlwinds,
gloomy thick clouds, fiery clouds, hurricane clouds
and thunderstorm clouds, and rain, mists and fog.
As these winds show their might the dust flies and
the great forest trees of Tāne are smashed under the
attack and fall to the ground, food for decay and for
insects.Then Tāwhirimātea attacks the oceans and huge
waves rise, whirlpools form, and Tangaroa, the god of the
sea, flees in panic. Punga, a son of Tangaroa, has two
children, Ikatere father of fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi
(or Tu-te-wanawana) the ancestor of reptiles. Terrified
by Tāwhirimātea’s onslaught the fish seek shelter in
the sea and reptiles in the forests. Ever since Tangaroa
has been angry with Tāne for giving refuge to his
runaway children. So it is that Tāne supplies the
descendants of Tūmatauenga with canoes, fish hooks and
nets to catch the descendants of Tangaroa. Tangaroa
retaliates by swamping canoes and sweeping away
houses, land and trees that are washed out to sea in
floods Tāwhirimātea next attacks his brothers Rongo
and Haumia-tiketike, the gods of cultivated and
uncultivated foods. Rongo and Haumia are in great
fear of Tāwhirimātea but, as he attacks them, Papatūānuku
determines to keep these for her other children and hides
them so well that Tāwhirimātea cannot find them.
So Tāwhirimātea turns on his brother Tūmatauenga.
He uses all his strength but Tūmatauenga stands
fast and Tāwhirimatea cannot prevail against him.
Tū (or human kind) stands fast and, at last, the anger
of the gods subsided and peace
prevailed.

Tū thought about the actions of Tāne in separating their
parents and made snares to catch the birds, the children
of Tāne who could no longer fly free. He then made nets
from forest plants and casts them in the sea so that the
children of Tangaroa soon lie in heaps on the shore.
He made hoes to dig the ground, capturing his brothers
Rongo and Haumia-tiketike where they have hidden from
Tāwhirimātea in the bosom of the earth mother and,
recognising them by their long hair that remains above
the surface of the earth, he drags them forth and heaps
them into baskets to be eaten. So Tūmatauenga eats all
of his brothers to repay them for their cowardice; the
only brother that Tūmatauenga does not subdue is
Tāwhirimātea, whose storms and hurricanes attack
humankind to this day .