Mankind have but only one set of primitive parents. They are Rangi and Papa, the sky father and the earth mother. They existed in the darkness of Te Po and their children existed in the same darkness.
Wearied by the continual darkness, their children yearned for the light. They consulted among themselves how they could be rid of their parents. Tumatuenga suggested that they should kill them but Tane Mahuta wanted to simply push them apart. All of the brothers agreed with Tane Mahuta except Tawhirimatea.
Rongo Ma Tane was the first to try to push their parents apart but he failed. Tongaroa then tried but also failed. So did Haumia Tikitike and Tumatuenga, but they also failed. Finally Tane Mahuta tried. Standing on his head, he used his legs to push his parents apart. For the first time light, Te Ao Marama, came into the world.
Tane Mahuta was the ancestor of trees, birds and insects. He also made the first woman, Hine Ahuone by fashioning her from clay. Their daughter was Hine Tiitama. Later she married her father. When she later found out he was her father she went and dwelt in the underworld where she became Hine Nui Te Po, the goddess of death.
Tane's Children
Tumatuenga was the ancestor of human beings.
Tangaroa was the god of the ocean. He was the father of Punga, who in turn became the father of Ikitere and Tutewanawana. Ikitere was the father of fish and Tutewanawana was the father of reptiles.
With Hinetewaiwa Tongaroa had another son, Tongaroakiukiu. Tongaroakiukiu in turn had two daughters: Hine Raumati was the personification of Summer and Hine Takarua was the personification of Winter.
Hine Raumati and Tamanuitera had a son Tane Rore, who was the inventor of Kapa Haka.
Tamanuitera was the god of the sun
Rongo was the father of cultivated plants that was food for humans and Haumia Tikitiki was the father of uncultivated food plants.
Tawhirimatea was the god of wind, storms, thunder and lightning.
Urutengangana was the god of light. With his first wife, Moeahuru, he was the father of the sun and the moon. With his second wife he became the father of the stars.
Tawhirimatea holds a lightning bolt in one hand and is enveloped in a whirl-wind
Tawhirimatea never agreed to the separation of Rangi and Papa. He joins his father in the sky and from there plans revenge on his brothers.
He sends storms to destroy the forests of Tane.
Tangaroa seeks safety in the ocean. The children of Ikitere, the fish, follow him, but the children of Tutewanawana, the reptiles, seek safety in the forests of Tane.
Tawhirimatea next attacks Rongo and Humia Tikitiki. However Papa, their mother, hides them from him inside the earth and his search for them is in vain.
Finally Tawhirimatea attacks Tumatuenga. Unlike his brothers, Tumatuenga does not run away. However he and Tawhirimatea are of equal strength and one cannot vanquish the other. Thus mankind, the descendants of Tumatuenga always struggle against the weather.
Cabbage tree growing among flax bushes; Tumatuenga's workshop
Tumatuenga was angry at his brothers for not supporting him against Tawhirimatea and decided to take revenge on them.
He went into the forest and collected leaves from the whanake tree (cabbage tree) and twisted them into nooses. He used those to trap birds, the children of Tane.
He then collected flax leaves from which he made nets to trap fish, the children of Tongaroa.
Finally he dug up both the kumara and the non-cultivated edible plants, the children of Rongo and Haumia Tikitiki. These he cooked and ate.
Thereafter his children trap birds, catch fish and eat Kumara and other non-cultivated plants.
Ruamoko was the youngest of the children of Rangi and Papa. He was also known as Ruaimokoroa.
At the time of their separation by Tane Mahuta, Ruamoko was still at his mother's breast.
To ameliorate their mother’s sorrow from having to look up continuously at Rangi, her children turned her face downwards. Ruamoko was therefore buried in the earth.
To keep them warm their children gave Papa fire from under the earth. Because of this Ruamoko became the god of the volcanoes. Also the earthquakes are supposed to be caused by Ruamoko moving around beneath the earth
Since Ruamoko has always been underneath his mother in the earth, images of him don't make sense. He is therefore represented here in one of his spectacular emanations: Ngauruhoe in eruption.
Tangaroa swims in his ocean For audio commentary select below
As a result of Tawhirimatea's depredation the fish followed their ancestor Tangaroa to the sea but the reptiles fled into Tane's forests. Tangaroa is still angry with Tane for keeping his descendants away from him.
Geckos: three of Tangaroa's lost children
Tangaroa shows his anger by causing heavy waves to pound the land and overturning fishing vessels.
Tane retaliates by supplying flax to mankind so they can make nets to trap the children of Tangaroa. He also supplies timber so that they can make canoes and spears.
Panenehu, a Maori chief, missed the foods of his homeland - especially koura (crayfish). After praying he was sent a koura drawn on a rock. In his dreams, he was told to take the drawing to the seashore and show it to Tangaroa, the sea god. In his rush to get to the shore, he dropped and smashed the rock but by using red clay he pieced it together. When the koura finally arrived they looked just like the broken image Panenehu had patched together. Today these ugly but delicious creatures can be found all around the New Zealand coast.
