HomeTāne and the Separation of Papatūānuku & Ranginui2A. W. Reed, “Heaven and Earth,” in Māori Myths & Legendary Tales, 11-22.
Before there was night or day, ocean or mountains, there was Rangi, the sky-father, who lay in the arms of Papa, the Earth-mother. For ages they clung together tightly, their children groping blindly between them in a world of darkness. Eventually, the children of the gods – no longer children – discussed their options. After some argument – the loudest dissenting voice came from Tawhiri-matea, the father of the winds – the children resolved to separate their parents, to push them apart, throwing Rangi to the sky while remaining close to the Earth.3Reed, 11.
A number of children attempted the task: Rongo-ma-tāne, the father of cultivated food; Tangaroa, the father of the sea, of fish and reptiles; Haumia-tiketike, father of wild berries and the fern-root; Tūmatauenga, the god of war and father of man. All failed to separate their parents. Finally, Tāne-mahuta (Tāne Nui a Rangi), the mighty father of the forest, birds and insects and all living things that love light and freedom, approached his parents. He stood unmoving, gathering his strength. Tāne-mahuta inserted himself between his parents, his hands pressed into the Earth and feet planted firmly against his sky-father. He thrust and stretched until his body fully straightened, a low rumbling moan filling the small space Tāne occupied. Tāne pushed until an eruption of movement flung Rangi away from Papa, the winds of Tawhiri-matea screaming through the open space between the sky and Earth.4Reed, 12. The separation of Rangi and Papa lives in the creation myths of other faiths, for example, in Christianity when God said ‘let there be light’.
Stories tell that Tāne journeyed to find the glowing red sun to place at the meeting of his parents and marama (the moon), to light the world during darkness. Then, he traveled to the end of the world to Maunganui, the Great Mountain, where his brother Uru lived with his children, the Shining Ones. Tāne begged Uru for some of his Shining Lights to fasten to the mantle of the sky. Uru shouted for his children who came rolling down the mountain, each one shaped like an eye. They glowed and twinkled, lighting up the mountain as they descended. Uru and Tāne plucked the shining ones and filled a basket with their light. Tāne carried the basket to his father and placed four sacred lights in the four corners of the sky, five in a cross on the breast of Rangi. The children of light still cling onto Rangi’s robe and the basket hangs in the wide heavens projecting a soft cluster of light – a light we call The Milky Way.5Reed, 14-15.