Tāwhirimātea- Polynesian GodDeity"God of Storms"

The One Who Refused

The children of Rangi and Papa lived in darkness, crushed between their parents' embrace. When the brothers debated what to do, most wanted to force Sky and Earth apart. Tāwhirimātea did not. He loved the closeness. He begged them to leave things as they were. They ignored him. Tāne braced his shoulders against Rangi and his feet against Papa and pushed until light flooded the space between for the first time. Rangi wept. Tāwhirimātea wept with him, then followed his father upward into the sky.

War from the Sky

From Rangi's side, Tāwhirimātea begot his children: Fierce-squall and Whirlwind and all their kin. He sent them down. In George Grey's account, hurricane winds struck Tāne's forests and snapped the great trees at the trunk. Towering waves battered Tangaroa's ocean until the sea god's children split apart, some diving for deep water, others fleeing ashore to become lizards. Rongo and Haumia buried themselves in the body of Papa like tubers in the earth.

Only Tū stood. Tūmatauenga, god of war, planted his feet and refused to move. The storm raged. Tū held. Neither god could break the other. When the wind finally dropped, Tū was still standing, and Tāwhirimātea was still in the sky.

Never Defeated

Afterwards, Tū took his revenge on every brother who had fled and left him alone in the storm. He trapped Tāne's birds and netted Tangaroa's fish. He dug up Rongo and Haumia from the ground. He mastered them all. But Tāwhirimātea he could not touch. The storm god remained beyond reach, and his war never ended. Every gale that strips the leaves, every cyclone that floods the coast, is Tāwhirimātea still refusing to forgive.