Tane- Polynesian GodDeity"Lord of the Forest"

The Separation of Earth and Sky

In the beginning, Ranginui the Sky Father and Papatūānuku the Earth Mother lay locked together in an embrace so close that their many children were trapped between them in total darkness. The divine offspring could not move, could not see. After long deliberation, Tūmatauenga proposed killing their parents outright. Tāne argued instead for separation: pushing them apart so that Rangi might stand above and Papa below, with light and air between them.

Each brother attempted the task and failed. Finally Tāne lay upon his back on his mother Papa, planted his feet against his father Rangi, and pushed with all his strength. Slowly, agonizingly, the sky began to lift. Rangi cried out in pain and Papa groaned beneath the strain, but Tāne would not relent. The embrace that had lasted since the beginning of time was broken. Light flooded into the widening space. Te Ao Mārama, the World of Light, came into being.

Adorning the Heavens

With earth and sky separated, Tāne turned his attention to his father's naked body, now vast and dark overhead. He took the stars and placed them upon Rangi's chest and back to clothe him in beauty and give light to the night. He set the sun, Tama-nui-te-rā, to travel across the sky by day, and the moon to illuminate the darkness. He placed the Milky Way as a great river of light across the heavens.

Lord of the Forest

The trees that reach from earth toward sky are Tāne's children. The great kauri and kahikatea, some towering more than fifty meters, are his most visible presence in the world. The birds that live among the branches are also under his protection. When people entered the forest to fell a tree for a canoe or a building, they performed karakia to Tāne, acknowledging his authority and asking permission. The forest provided food, shelter, medicine, and timber, all given to those who approached his domain with proper respect.

The Creation of Woman and the Origin of Death

After the world was established, Tāne sought a mate but could find no suitable companion. He fathered various offspring by different elements, trees, stones, streams, but none were human. Finally he traveled to Kurawaka, a sacred place, and gathered the red earth from Papa's body. From this clay he shaped Hine-ahu-one, the "Earth-formed Maiden," and breathed life into her nostrils. Tāne took her as his wife, and she bore him a daughter, Hine-tītama, the "Dawn Maiden."

Tāne then took Hine-tītama as his wife as well, without revealing that he was her father. When Hine-tītama discovered the truth, she was overcome with shame. She fled to the underworld, passing through the gateway of death, and transformed herself into Hine-nui-te-pō, the Great Goddess of Death. From the darkness she turned to face the world of the living and declared that she would draw down all of Tāne's children into death.

The Baskets of Knowledge

Tāne ascended through twelve celestial realms to obtain the three baskets of knowledge, ngā kete o te wānanga. Each realm presented tests of worthiness and understanding. He sought Io-matua-kore (in traditions that include this figure) and was granted the three baskets: te kete tuauri, containing knowledge of ritual, prayer, and the spiritual world; te kete tuatea, containing knowledge of war and earthly struggle; and te kete aronui, containing knowledge of peace, the arts, and the natural world. He also brought back two sacred stones, Hukatai and Rehutai.

The return was no less dangerous. Whiro, the embodiment of darkness, sent hordes of insects and malevolent spirits to intercept Tāne and steal the knowledge. Tāne prevailed, bringing the baskets safely to earth and establishing the whare wānanga, houses of learning, where this knowledge would be preserved and transmitted through the generations.

The Wars Among the Brothers

The separation of Rangi and Papa did not bring peace. Tāwhirimātea, god of storms and winds, had opposed the separation from the beginning. Enraged at the tearing apart of his parents, he followed Rangi into the sky and launched his children, the winds, the rain, the hurricanes, howling down against Tāne's forests. The great trees were torn and uprooted, their trunks snapped and branches hurled across the land.

But Tāne endured. The forests grew back. Trees took root again and pushed once more toward the sky. Meanwhile, when some of Tangaroa's sea creatures fled the ocean and took refuge in Tāne's forests, becoming lizards and reptiles, Tangaroa regarded this as theft and the two gods became enemies. Tūmatauenga, god of war and humanity, eventually asserted dominion over the children of all his brothers: catching Tangaroa's fish, snaring Tāne's birds, digging Haumia's fern roots, harvesting Rongo's cultivated foods.