Contemporary Traditional

Maori Culture ,part 2

by;Leslie Alvarado 1/13/12period.1

culture and geography George Gray,1956,Polynesian Mithology(ed.by william W.Bird):Christchurch,Whitecombe and Tombs Ltd.,250

p.(BL 2615.G843p 1956)

 

(Acording to the Maori Tradition)All humans are descended from one pair of ancestors,Rangi and pap,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 their inhabitants",

 

"(2)Tawhire-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 cultivation";

 

"(6)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,able only to wonder what light and vision might be like." 

after a battle between the six sons tu-mauwenga ate 4 of his brothers as food ,sparing tawhiri-ma-tea,the

father of winds and storm.

This is why today people are fierce and have war,why people eat plants and animals ,and why there are

stroms.