Whakapapa is about knowing who you are and where you belong. Through knowing whakapapa, we gain our identity, history and knowledge about where we come from and where we belong. Māori have both a physical and spiritual relationship to wai. It is the source of connection to wai which can be traced back through geneaology or whakapapa. Below is a source of links to information and resources pertaining to Ranginui and Paptūānuku, as the source of life.
Maori Myths, Legends and Contemporary Stories has been written or retold by Wiremu Grace and can be access from TKI Te Kete Ipurangi website.
Read about the children of Ranginui and Papatūānuku and other legends including:
Tāwhirimātea lived between the embrace of Ranginui and Papatūānuku as did the other children of his whānau. He liked living close to his parents. He could talk to his mother, and get advice from his father when he needed to. Tāwhirimātea didn't mind the difficulties of living in continual darkness, or that space was so confined that he and the rest of his siblings had to crawl to get around. But the other children had had enough.
Hinewhaitiri liked to play with the cloud, lightning, wind, and thunder children. They always had fun, roaming everywhere and anywhere they wanted rolling across the sky throwing huge shadows onto the landscape below. Hinewhaitiri enjoyed the freedom the children of the elements shared, the dancing and chasing games they played, but most of all the stories they told of the hui marangai they had been to.
The great battle between Kupe, his warriors, and the giant wheke (octopus) of Muturangi took place at the top of the South Island. Kupe's children, wife, and other whānau members stayed at Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), to gather supplies and to keep safe from what Kupe knew would be a fierce sea battle.