Rajasee Ray: Maori Creation Myth

“Our world sprang from darkness – the darkness that was born out of an embrace. In the beginning, the gods lived in this darkness – between Rangi, the Sky Father, and Papa, the Earth Mother, as they held each other tightly. The gods could not live in such darkness – and our ancestor, Tumatauenge, the god of war, suggested to his brothers that they kill the Sky Father and the Earth Mother so that they could have space to live – and light to see by. His brother Tane, the god of forests and birds, had a kinder idea. He pushed Rangi and Papa apart, sending Rangi upwards to remain a stranger to his children, and Papa downwards to nurture her sons. The gods then created trees and clouds as barriers to keep them apart.

“Tumatauenga, because his advice was not taken, then defeated his brothers and achieved dominion over them. He made snares to catch the birds – the children of Tane, nets and traps to catch the fish and the reptiles, the children of Tangaroa. He made hoes with which he dug the ground – and captured his brothers Rongo and Haumia-tiketike, who were heaped in baskets to be eaten. The only brother he could not subdue was Tawhirimatea, the god of storms and winds, who was angry with his brothers for forcing the Sky Father and the Earth Mother apart.

“Because we are the descendents of Tumatauenga, we must still face the wrath of Tawhirimatea – while we hunt the birds and the animals on land – or the fish in the sea in our waka, our seafaring canoes – so vulnerable to Tawhirimatea’s storms.

“From our ancestor Tumatauenga, we have inherited the right to eat the children of his brothers, from him we have inherited the art of war. But a few hundred years have passed since our ancestors landed in Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud, in their waka – and the last of the moa birds* have fallen to our hunger, and many fishing grounds are now tapu** so that we do not see the last of the fish.

“When we look up at the stars and the moon, or the sun, that Tane gathered and threw upwards to adorn Rangi with, because he was his father, we know that the Sky Father yearns for the Earth Mother – and sometimes we can see him cry, his tears falling to the earth as rain. And the earth sighs for the sky, sending up mists from her forests, in answer.”

The Maori – or the ‘ordinary’, a terminology they use to separate themselves from their deities – arrived and settled in New Zealand over a few centuries, before the year 1300 A.D. Like most indigenous cultures, they worshipped gods of nature and saw their biological origins in the sky and the earth – the universe that encompassed them. The duality of male and female – life and death – darkness and light – forms the theme of this myth. Because there was an abundance of wildlife in New Zealand, and they were skilled hunters, they ate very well, and believed in a creation that gave them the right to hunt and eat their cousins – animals, birds and fish. As their population grew, they also needed to resort to warfare, which, again was sanctioned by their divine inheritance: they were the descendants of the god of war.

Mother earth and father sky parted forever so that their offspring would have room to grow – and, without their parents' guidance, their children used their freedom to fight each other.

*moa: eleven species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, which were hunted to extinction by the Mauri over about a hundred years.

**tapu: sacred – not to be interfered with; the origin of the English word taboo.