Māori gods and the Māori creation story

The Māori gods are the atua ‘ancestors with continuing influence, gods’, and the Māori creation story tells how most of them came into the world: Ranginui ‘the sky father’ and Papatūānuku ‘the earth mother’ lay together in darkness with their children between them, until Tāne pushed them apart and light came in. Their children became the atua of the forest, the sea, the winds, food, war and earthquakes. This guide tells one widely told version of that story, says where tribal versions differ, and sets out what each atua is atua of, from Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, and Te Aka Māori Dictionary.

Updated 6 November 2026 · 11 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

What “atua” means

Atua is usually translated “god”, and Te Aka Māori Dictionary gives “god” among its meanings, but its first gloss is “ancestor with continuing influence”. It adds that translating atua as “god” is “a misconception of the real meaning”: many Māori trace their ancestry from atua in their whakapapa ‘genealogy’, and the atua are regarded as ancestors with influence over particular domains, normally invisible but able to have visible representations. Te Ara makes the same point about the sea: the energy of water in all its forms and moods is called Tangaroa, and “the common translation, ‘god of the sea’, does not adequately convey its meaning.” This page says “atua” for that reason, and uses “god” only where a source does.

Today Atua is also the word for the Christian God, as in the first line of the national anthem, E Ihowā Atua ‘O Lord God’; see the national anthem in Māori.

The Māori creation story

Te Ara’s story on Māori creation traditions, by Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, finds three themes that all the Māori accounts share: the movement from nothing or darkness to something or light; the separation of earth and sky; and the work of the atua in fashioning the natural world. Beyond those, it says, there is “considerable diversity among various tribal versions”.

From nothing to light

Most versions use three words for the states the world passes through: Te Kore ‘nothingness, the void’, Te Pō ‘darkness, the night’ and Te Ao ‘light, the world’. The movement is often told as a whakapapa, one state born from another. Te Ara gives this sequence, adapted from a version by Hūkiki Te Ahukaramū, a nineteenth-century Ngāti Raukawa chief:

1. Te Pō ‘night, darkness’
2. Te Ata ‘dawn’
3. Te Ao ‘light, world’
4. Te Ao-tū-roa ‘longstanding world’
5. Te Ao Mārama ‘world of light’

Ranginui and Papatūānuku

Out of the darkness come Ranginui, the sky, and Papatūānuku, the earth. Te Aka describes Ranginui as the atua of the sky and the husband of Papatūānuku, “from which union originate all living things.” They lay in a close embrace, and their children were born and lived in the dark between them. The children grew frustrated with the darkness and decided to push their parents apart.

Tāne separates the sky and the earth

In the account Te Ara gives from Wiremu Maihi Te Rangikāheke of Te Arawa, the brothers tried one after another. Te Ara’s story on the forest quotes him: “Rongomātāne arose to separate the two, but the two were not separated. Tangaroa arose to separate the two but they were not separated. Haumia-tiketike arose but the result was the same. Tūmatauenga arose and the result was the same. Finally, Tāne-mahuta arose…” Tāne lay on his back and pushed with his arms and legs while the others cut through their parents’ last grasp, and he set up posts to keep them apart, which is why, Te Ara says, he is also called Tāne-tokotoko-o-ngā-rangi, Tāne of the posts that hold the heavens aloft. Light came into the world, and the world of light, Te Ao Mārama, began.

One brother did not agree. Te Aka and Te Ara both record that Tāwhirimātea did not want his parents separated; he went up to the sky to be with his father, and the storms that followed are his revenge (below).

The parents’ grief goes on. Te Ara’s story on earthquakes tells that Rangi’s tears flooded the land after the separation, and the sons turned their mother face down so that she and Rangi would not keep seeing each other’s sorrow. That turning is where the story of Rūaumoko begins (below). The everyday words for sky, land and weather are in Māori words for nature.

Where the tellings differ

Io

Some tribes tell of a supreme being, Io, and some versions of the creation story begin with him. Te Ara calls the idea of a godhead in Māori culture “the subject of great debate”: Io is absent from early manuscripts and appears late in the nineteenth century, and S. Percy Smith’s publication of it in 1913 was met with suspicion; some argue that Io was invented to bring Māori cosmology into line with Christianity. Yet Te Ara also notes that the tradition held the attention of many tribal elders and that “almost all tribes have a view on Io”, and Te Aka points out that Io appears in traditions from Hawaiʻi, the Society Islands and the Cook Islands, which “suggests a more ancient tradition.” This page takes no side.

The atua and what each is atua of

Te Aka quotes a sentence from the Māori-language newspaper Korimako of 16 September 1886 that names the main children and their domains in one breath:

Ko Tangaroa, he ika; ko Rongo-mā-tāne, ko te kūmara; ko Haumia-tiketike, ko te aruhe; ko Tāne-mahuta, ko te rākau, ko te manu; ko Tāwhiri-mātea, ko te hau; ko Tū-mata-uenga, ko te tangata.

In Te Aka’s translation: Tangaroa is fish; Rongo-mā-tāne is kūmara; Haumia-tiketike is fernroot; Tāne-mahuta is trees and birds; Tāwhiri-mātea is wind; Tū-mata-uenga is humans. The fuller list, with each domain as Te Aka gives it:

Tāne: forests, birds and the first woman

Te Ara’s forest story calls Tāne “a figure of great importance in tribal traditions”: he separated earth and sky, fashioned the first human, adorned the heavens, and brought the baskets of knowledge down to people. He has a name for each role: Tāne-mahuta as atua of the forest, Tāne-te-wānanga as the bringer of knowledge, and Tānenui-a-rangi as the bringer of higher consciousness. Trees are seen as Tāne still holding up the sky, so the great forest clearances of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were, in Te Ara’s words, “like the sky rejoining the earth”. The Department of Conservation gives the name Tāne Mahuta to New Zealand’s largest known living kauri, in Waipoua Forest.

In one tradition Te Ara records, Tāne climbed to the highest of the twelve heavens and brought back three kete ‘baskets’ of knowledge. In the Hineahuone tradition he formed the first woman from clay at Kurawaka; Te Ara gives her name, Hineahuone, as “earth-formed woman”, and says Tāne placed in her both te ira atua, the godly aspect, and te ira tangata, the human aspect, which is why people are held to have both a human and a spiritual nature. The pōwhiri recalls the same act, as pōwhiri explained describes.

Tangaroa: the sea

Tangaroa is the atua of the sea and fish. In some traditions, Te Ara says, the depths of the ocean are the source of all life, and the islands are fish pulled up from under the sea, which is the story told in Māui legends. Nights of the moon named for him are the fishing nights of the Māori calendar; see the maramataka.

Tāwhirimātea: winds and storms

Te Ara’s weather story tells what Tāwhirimātea did after the separation. From the sky he sent his wind children to the four quarters, so that each wind is named for its direction, then sent the clouds, rain and hail. He attacked his brothers in turn: he snapped the trees of Tāne’s forest, raised the waves of Tangaroa’s sea as high as mountains, and drove Rongomātāne and Haumia into hiding inside their mother, “that is why kūmara and fern root burrow into the earth.” Only Tūmatauenga stood firm, so the two are still at war: Tāwhirimātea “continues to attack people in storms and cyclones”. The proverb Hokia ki ō maunga kia purea koe e ngā hau a Tāwhirimātea is in Māori proverbs.

Tūmatauenga: war and people

Tūmatauenga, often Tū, is the atua of war and of humans. Te Aka’s entry for atua lists some of his other names: Tū-kā-riri, Tū-the-angry-one; Tū-te-ngaehe, Tū-who-tears-apart; Tū-mata-uenga, Tū-who-incites. On a marae, the open ground in front of the meeting house, the marae ātea, is his domain, and Te Ara says speeches there “are allowed to be forceful, representing the nature of Tū”; see the parts of a marae.

Rongo and Haumia-tiketike: food and peace

Rongo, also Rongo-mā-tāne or Rongomātāne, is in Te Aka the atua of peace, of kūmara and of all cultivated foods. On a marae the meeting house is his domain, and Te Ara says speeches inside it are expected to be more conciliatory. Haumia-tiketike is the atua of fernroot and uncultivated food. Te Ara’s weather story spells him Haumia-tikitiki, and Te Aka lists Haumia, Haumia-tikitiki and Haumia-roa as other names. The karakia said before a meal that names Tāne, Rongo and Tangaroa is in Māori food words.

Rūaumoko: earthquakes

Te Aka calls Rūaumoko (also Rūaimoko) the atua of earthquakes and the youngest child of Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Te Ara tells why he is underground: when his brothers turned their mother face down, Rūaumoko was still at her breast and was carried to the world below, where he was given fire to keep him warm. Te Ara calls him the god of earthquakes and volcanoes, and says the rumblings that disturb the land are made by him as he walks about.

Whiro and Hine-nui-te-pō: darkness and death

Whiro, fully Whiro-te-tipua, is in Te Aka the atua of “things associated with evil, darkness and death”. Te Aka quotes a telling in which Whiro instigated the great battle among the children of Rangi and Papa, was defeated, and fled to Rarohenga, the underworld. Lizards were seen as his representatives, as Māori mythical creatures explains.

Hine-nui-te-pō receives the souls of the dead. Te Ara’s story on death customs tells that she was Hine-tītama, the daughter of Tāne and Hineahuone, who became Tāne’s wife; when she learned that her husband was also her father she fled to Rarohenga, where the spirits of the dead dwell, and would not return. How the hero Māui tried to overcome her, and failed, is in Māui legends.

The atua and Matariki

The one link between the atua and Matariki that the sources record is in its name. Te Ara and Te Aka both give Matariki as an abbreviation of Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea ‘the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea’: when Ranginui and Papatūānuku were separated, Tāwhirimātea in his anger tore out his eyes and threw them into the heavens. The nine stars and what each is linked with are in Matariki: the stars, words and phrases.

Where you meet the atua today

• In the meeting house. Te Ara explains that a carved meeting house stands for the world of light made by the separation: the roof is Ranginui, the floor Papatūānuku, and the posts are those Tāne used to hold them apart. Carved houses are opened at dawn because the sunrise stands for the creation of the world of light.
• In the pōwhiri. Te Ara calls the welcome a re-enactment of the separation: it moves the guests from darkness to light, and an orator speaking on the marae is said to re-enact Tāne raising the sky.
• In speeches, songs and prayers. Te Ara says Ranginui and Papatūānuku are celebrated in proverbs, songs and speech-making. A traditional karakia before a meal, published by Te Puni Kōkiri, names the food of Tāne, Rongo, Tangaroa and Maru and includes the lines Ko Ranginui e tū iho nei, ko Papatūānuku e takoto nei, acknowledging Ranginui above and Papatūānuku beneath; it is set out line by line in Māori food words.
• In names. Tangaroa and Tāne are given to children, as Māori baby names shows. In commerce it is different: the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand’s trade mark guidelines say that atua are associated with collective ancestry and their use is considered tapu ‘sacred, restricted’, and that “an objection will be raised if the mark includes Ranginui or Papatūānuku”; see Māori team names.

Going further

The creatures of the same world, from taniwha to patupaiarehe, are in Māori mythical creatures, and the hero who fished up the North Island is in Māui legends. Our free te reo Māori course teaches the everyday words these stories are told in, with every example recorded by Papa Reo.

Sources

1. Te Ara: Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, ‘Māori creation traditions – Common threads in creation stories’
2. Te Ara: Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, ‘Māori creation traditions – Different creation traditions’ (Io)
3. Te Ara: Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, ‘Māori creation traditions – Creation and the Māori world view’
4. Te Ara: Rāwiri Taonui, ‘Ranginui – the sky – Ranginui – the sky father’
5. Te Ara: Rāwiri Taonui, ‘Ranginui – the sky – Ranginui as knowledge and life’
6. Te Ara: Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, ‘Papatūānuku – the land – The importance of Papatūānuku’
7. Te Ara: Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, ‘Papatūānuku – the land – Papatūānuku – the earth mother’
8. Te Ara: ‘Tāwhirimātea – the weather – Origins of the weather’
9. Te Ara: ‘Tangaroa – the sea – The importance of the sea’
10. Te Ara: ‘Tangaroa – the sea – Creation’
11. Te Ara: ‘Te Waonui-a-Tāne – forest mythology – Tāne and his forests’
12. Te Ara: ‘Te Waonui-a-Tāne – forest mythology – Rituals of the marae’
13. Te Ara: ‘Historic earthquakes – Earthquakes in Māori tradition’ (Rūaumoko)
14. Te Ara: Rawinia Higgins, ‘Tangihanga – death customs – Mythological origins’
15. Te Ara: ‘Matariki – Te Tau Hou Māori’ (Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea)
16. Te Ara: Basil Keane, ‘Te kawa o te marae – Mythology and history of marae protocol’ (the domains of Tūmatauenga and Rongo)
17. Department of Conservation: Tāne Mahuta Walk, Waipoua Forest
18. IPONZ: Māori Advisory Committee and Māori trade marks (practice guideline)
19. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: atua
20. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Rangi-nui
21. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Ranginui
22. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Papatūānuku
23. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Tāne-mahuta (with the Korimako sentence of 16 September 1886)
24. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Tangaroa
25. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Tāwhiri-mātea
26. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Tāwhirimātea
27. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Tūmatauenga
28. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Rongo
29. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Haumia-tiketike
30. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Rūaumoko
31. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Whiro
32. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Hine-nui-te-pō
33. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Hine-ahu-one
34. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Rangi-hāpainga (Paia-nui-a-Rangi)
35. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: Io
36. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: aruhe