This painting of the separation of Rangi and Papa is by Para Matchitt. The Story of Rangi and Papa Rangi is the sky, the father of all things; Papa is the earth, the mother of all things. In the beginning there was darkness, and these two, the earth and the sky, lay together. They had many children, who lay between them. It was dark for many ages; there was as yet no world with its bright light. Then their children began to wonder what kind of thing the light could be. They wearied of the narrow space to which they were confined, and wished to separate their parents, so that there could be light. Then they came together to decide whether it would be better to kill their parents or to tear them apart. The fiercest of the children of Rangi and Papa is Tu, the god of war. It was Tu who spoke first, and he said, ‘Let us kill our parents!’ Then Tane, the god and father of forests and of all things that live in them, or that are made from trees, said, ‘No, we will not kill them. It is better to drag them apart, and let the sky be far above us, and the earth lie beneath our feet. In this way the sky will become a stranger to us, but the earth will stay close to us as a mother.’ All the brothers agreed to this except for Tawhiri, the father of winds and storms; and he, being afraid that his kingdom was about to be overthrown, was angry at the thought of the separation of his parents. It is from this happening that there comes the saying found in the ancient prayers, ‘Darkness, darkness, light, light, the seeking, the searching, in chaos, in chaos’; this tells of the way in which the children of the sky and earth sought for some way of dealing with their parents, so that human beings could increase and live. When at last they had agreed to this plan,