Key Info

- Tūmatauenga (War God): Proposes to kill their parents

- Rongo (Cultivated Food God), Tangaroa (Sea God), Haumia-tiketike (Uncultivated Food God): Try and fail to pry the parents apart 

- Tāne (Forest, Bird God): Proposer of the separation plan, puts his back on earth and uses his legs to push his parents apart

Brief Bio

Ranginui and Papatūānuku together form the primordial sky father and earth mother bearing over 500 children. Locked together in a tight embrace their children are forced to live in the cramped darkness between them.

These children grow and discuss among themselves what it would be like to live in the light. Tūmatauenga, the fiercest of the children, proposes that the best solution to their predicament is to kill their parents.  But his brother Tāne disagrees, suggesting that it is better to push them apart, to let Ranginui be as a stranger to them in the sky above while Papatūānuku will remain below to nurture them. The others put their plans into action—Rongo, the god of cultivated food, tries to push his parents apart, then Tangaroa, the god of the sea, and his sibling Haumia-tiketike, the god of wild food, join him. In spite of their joint efforts Rangi and Papa remain close together in their loving embrace.

After many attempts Tāne, god of forests and birds, forces his parents apart. Instead of standing upright and pushing with his hands as his brothers have done, he lies on his back and pushes with his strong legs. Stretching every sinew Tāne pushes and pushes until, with cries of grief and surprise, Ranginui and Papatūānuku were pried apart. Traditions of the Taranaki region, however, assign this separating role to Tangaroa, god of the sea.