WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.710 Rangi and Papa 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:15.180 The Maori people of New Zealand believe that in the very beginning there was nothing but sky and earth. 00:00:15.180 --> 00:00:19.210 Rangi is the sky, the father of all things. 00:00:19.210 --> 00:00:23.290 Papa is the earth, the mother of all things. 00:00:23.290 --> 00:00:29.150 In the very beginning there was nothing but sky, earth and darkness. 00:00:29.150 --> 00:00:34.010 Rangi and Papa held one another in a tight embrace; 00:00:34.010 --> 00:00:38.380 sky pressed against earth, earth against sky. 00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:40.520 They had six sons: 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:44.010 Tu, the father of warriors, 00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:47.860 Tane, the father of forests, 00:00:47.860 --> 00:00:52.190 Tawhiri, the father of winds and storms, 00:00:52.190 --> 00:00:56.500 Tangaroa, the father of fish and animals, 00:00:56.510 --> 00:01:00.240 Haumia, the father of wild food, 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:04.610 and Rongo, the father of cultivated food. 00:01:04.610 --> 00:01:12.460 The six brothers were pressed so tightly between the bodies of their parents that they could barely move. 00:01:12.460 --> 00:01:17.780 Then the brothers began to wonder what kind of thing the light might be. 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:22.660 They were tired of the dark, narrow space that was their habitation. 00:01:22.660 --> 00:01:28.920 They started thinking that if they could separate their parents, maybe the light would come. 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:31.500 They whispered amongst themselves. 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:35.870 The fiercest of them all was Tu, the father of warriors. 00:01:35.870 --> 00:01:37.610 He spoke first. 00:01:37.610 --> 00:01:39.070 ‘We will kill them. 00:01:39.070 --> 00:01:42.730 We will kill them both and rule in their place.’ 00:01:42.730 --> 00:01:46.050 But Tane, the father of forests, shook his head. 00:01:46.050 --> 00:01:49.720 ‘No. It would be better to push them apart. 00:01:49.720 --> 00:01:54.640 That way the sky will be far above us and the earth will be at our feet. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:02:01.250 The sky will become a stranger to us but the earth, our mother, will always be close.’ 00:02:01.250 --> 00:02:03.940 This seemed a good idea. 00:02:03.940 --> 00:02:07.570 All the brothers were in agreement that this was what should be done – 00:02:07.570 --> 00:02:09.550 all the brothers but one. 00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:12.450 Tawhiri, the father of winds and storms, 00:02:12.450 --> 00:02:15.970 did not want his parents to be separated at all. 00:02:15.970 --> 00:02:21.150 He thought they should be left in peace but the other five ignored him. 00:02:21.150 --> 00:02:26.680 First Rongo, the father of cultivated food, tried his strength. 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:31.220 He crouched between his father and mother and pushed upwards, 00:02:31.220 --> 00:02:33.650 but he couldn’t part them. 00:02:33.650 --> 00:02:35.840 Then it was Tangaroa’s turn. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:42.010 The father of fish heaved and struggled but he wasn’t strong enough. 00:02:42.010 --> 00:02:48.560 Then Haumia, the father of wild food, tried but sky and earth still clung together. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:55.090 Then Tu, the father of warriors, clenched his teeth and strained to cleave them apart, 00:02:55.090 --> 00:02:57.580 but he wasn’t strong enough. 00:02:57.580 --> 00:03:00.650 Last of all, Tane came forward. 00:03:00.650 --> 00:03:06.130 The father of forests knelt and pressed his forehead and his hands against sky. 00:03:06.130 --> 00:03:12.210 Slowly, teeteringly he pushed himself to his feet and then he collapsed. 00:03:12.210 --> 00:03:14.690 The weight was too much for him. 00:03:14.690 --> 00:03:18.300 He rested for a while and then he tried again, 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:25.370 and this time he pressed his head to the ground and rested his feet against his father, the sky. 00:03:25.370 --> 00:03:31.490 He strained his back and with a mighty effort he tore his parents apart. 00:03:31.490 --> 00:03:33.500 They shrieked and groaned. 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:35.020 ‘Why are you punishing us? 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:37.090 What crime have we committed?’ 00:03:37.090 --> 00:03:43.640 For a moment he paused and then with a tremendous kick he straightened his legs. 00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:50.080 With a terrible cry the sky flew up to the place he still inhabits to this day, 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:52.320 high above our heads, 00:03:52.320 --> 00:04:01.150 and ever since that time trees have grown with their heads in the ground and their limbs stretched upwards. 00:04:01.150 --> 00:04:04.170 As soon as they sky was torn from the earth, 00:04:04.170 --> 00:04:11.000 the light came pouring into the space between and out of clefts and caves in the body of the earth, 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.580 the very first people appeared. 00:04:13.580 --> 00:04:18.170 But Tawhiri, the father of winds and storms, was angry. 00:04:18.170 --> 00:04:26.780 He followed his father and made his dwelling place high in the sky and from there he waged war on his brothers. 00:04:26.780 --> 00:04:30.760 Tangaroa’s children fled in two directions; 00:04:30.760 --> 00:04:34.160 the fish to the sea and the animals to the land. 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:36.430 They’ve been there ever since. 00:04:36.430 --> 00:04:41.300 Rongo’s children were so frightened they buried themselves in the ground. 00:04:41.300 --> 00:04:46.960 That’s why farmers still use spades and ploughs to cultivate their food. 00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:53.340 Haumia, the father of wild food, hid and still we have to search to find his children. 00:04:53.340 --> 00:04:58.060 Even Tane the forest trembled and was broken in the battles. 00:04:58.060 --> 00:05:03.770 Tawhiri sent fierce winds, thunderstorms, hurricanes and tempests. 00:05:03.770 --> 00:05:06.200 Even today the war is not over. 00:05:06.200 --> 00:05:09.480 Still he hasn’t forgiven his brothers. 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:14.650 The only one who wasn’t afraid was Tu, the father of warriors, 00:05:14.650 --> 00:05:22.060 and he was so angry with his frightened brothers that he showed these new people how to make nets for fish, 00:05:22.060 --> 00:05:25.140 how to make spears and traps for animals, 00:05:25.140 --> 00:05:31.000 how to prepare fields for cultivated food and how to forage for wild food. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.500 He showed them how to make axes to fell trees. 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:40.120 That way he made sure that his cowardly brothers suffered. 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:45.660 And the people, who had emerged from the body of the earth, began to flourish. 00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:51.080 It is from them that we are all descended. 00:05:51.080 --> 00:05:57.860 And Rangi the vast sky still longs for his lost lover the earth. 00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:06.620 Often in the long nights he weeps for her and his tears falling upon her body are what we people call dew. 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:11.570 And often Papa the earth mourns and sighs for the sky. 00:06:11.570 --> 00:06:16.320 Sometimes we can see her sighs rising from the ground. 00:06:16.320 --> 00:06:21.340 We call them mists.