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    Māori: Creation Pūrākau

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    api-542255476
    This Māori creation story describes how the world came to be. In the beginning there was only Te Kore, nothingness, and Ranginui the sky father and Papatūānuku the earth mother in a tight embrace. Their children grew between them in the darkness. Tāne pushed Ranginui and Papatūānuku apart, creating space, but upsetting Tāwhirimātea who fought his brothers with storms and weather. The world was shaped through conflicts between the gods as they established domains of land, sea, forests and more. Their impacts still influence the world today through weather patterns and the relationships between humans and nature.

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    Māori: Creation Pūrākau

    Uploaded by

    api-542255476
    838 views15 pages
    This Māori creation story describes how the world came to be. In the beginning there was only Te Kore, nothingness, and Ranginui the sky father and Papatūānuku the earth mother in a tight embrace. Their children grew between them in the darkness. Tāne pushed Ranginui and Papatūānuku apart, creating space, but upsetting Tāwhirimātea who fought his brothers with storms and weather. The world was shaped through conflicts between the gods as they established domains of land, sea, forests and more. Their impacts still influence the world today through weather patterns and the relationships between humans and nature.

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    This Māori creation story describes how the world came to be. In the beginning there was only Te Kore, nothingness, and Ranginui the sky father and Papatūānuku the earth mother in a tight embrace. Their children grew between them in the darkness. Tāne pushed Ranginui and Papatūānuku apart, creating space, but upsetting Tāwhirimātea who fought his brothers with storms and weather. The world was shaped through conflicts between the gods as they established domains of land, sea, forests and more. Their impacts still influence the world today through weather patterns and the relationships between humans and nature.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    838 views15 pages

    Māori: Creation Pūrākau

    Uploaded by

    api-542255476
    This Māori creation story describes how the world came to be. In the beginning there was only Te Kore, nothingness, and Ranginui the sky father and Papatūānuku the earth mother in a tight embrace. Their children grew between them in the darkness. Tāne pushed Ranginui and Papatūānuku apart, creating space, but upsetting Tāwhirimātea who fought his brothers with storms and weather. The world was shaped through conflicts between the gods as they established domains of land, sea, forests and more. Their impacts still influence the world today through weather patterns and the relationships between humans and nature.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 15

    Māori Creation

    Pūrākau
    Māori culture is rich in pūrākau or
    stories. These stories are a way of
    teaching the origins of the world and
    everything within it.
    This is the story that explains how
    the world came to be.
    In the beginning of time, there was nothing. There was no earth, sea or sky - just Te Pō (darkness). In this Te
    Kore (nothingness), Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother, came to be. They lay together
    in a tight embrace. Together, they had many children who were all male. The sons lived between them in the
    darkness.
    As the children grew up, they wondered what it would be like to live in the light. Tūmatauenga, the fiercest of all
    the sons, shouted to his brothers, “Let’s kill them!” The brothers disagreed. Tānemahuta, the god of the forests
    and birds, had a solution to the problem. “We will push them apart; Ranginui will be in the sky above us and
    Papatūānuku will stay below us so she remains close.”
    Rongomātāne, the god of cultivated food, tried to push his parents apart. He pushed and pushed with no success.
    Then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and Haumia-tiketike, the god of wild food, joined him. Together they pushed
    and pushed, but still their parents would not let go of each other.
    Eventually, Tāne tried. He placed his shoulders on his mother and his feet on his father and pushed hard for a
    very long time. Rangi and Papa called out in distress, "Why are you doing this? Please, don't separate us."
    Tāne continued to push with his strong legs until finally, Rangi and Papa were prised apart.
    The children were excited to finally have light and space to move. Tāwhirimātea, the god of weather was angry
    about the separation. He could not stand to hear his parents in pain, or to see the tears coming from Ranginui.
    Tāwhirimātea shouted to his brothers, “You will forever have to deal with my anger!” as he flew up to the sky to
    join his father.
    Tāwhirimātea fought his brothers with wind, storms, clouds, rain, mist and fog. The trees and plants of Tāne
    were smashed and crashed to the ground where they became food for the animals and rotted to nothing. The
    waters of the oceans of Tangaroa rose. Huge waves and whirlpools formed, scaring the fish under the seas and
    the reptiles into the forests.
    Tangaroa was angry at Tāne for taking in his reptiles so he fought back, flooding the land and sweeping away
    land and trees.
    Next, Tāwhirimātea chased after his brothers Rongo and Haumia. They were so scared that they ran to Papa;
    she pulled them underground so that Tāwhirimātea couldn’t find them. We can see them hiding today, their hair
    sticking up above land.
    Finally, Tāwhirimātea turned on Tū and they fought until they could fight no more. They could not defeat
    each other.
    To this day, we can see the gods and their actions on Earth.
    Tū (humankind) stands strong and repays his brothers for not standing up to Tāwhirimātea; he makes
    snares and catches the birds of Tāne, he makes nets out of plants and catches the fish of Tangaroa. He
    makes hoes and digs in the ground to pull up Rongo and Haumia.
    Tū still cannot control Tāwhirimātea; the weather continues to attack humankind with storms and hurricanes.
    Rangi and Papa still miss each other, the rain is Rangi crying for Papa. When there is mist rising from the land it
    is the sigh of Papa as she longs for Rangi.
    Later when the world was calm, Tāne restored the forests and plants to keep Papa warm and clothed, and in the
    branches of the trees, he made homes for the birds. Then he wove a cloak of stars and threw it up into the sky
    for his father.

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