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17 The Mythological Context
in the Spice Islands, usually used by an old woman, the Creatrix, in the creation
of wives for young men. In time the Creatrix took on some of the power of the
Cosmogonic Tree itself which was thought of as fructifying all trees. The same path
of evolution in Eastern Polynesia leads to Tane, the god of forests and creator of
trees, taking into himself the creative power of the Cosmogonic Tree to separate
heaven and earth and bring light into the world, and to create man by breathing life
into the clay image he has made. In Eastern Polynesia the totemic myth evolves to
one involving a purposeful parentless Creator.
17.3 The Cosmogonic Tree in the Chatham Islands
Ironically the myth of the Cosmogonic Tree was preserved in the Chathams by
a people without horticulture. Entirely hunter/gatherers, the Moriori people of the
Chatham Islands were not concerned with promoting the fertility of land to raise
crops to feed a burgeoning population. Indeed they castrated a proportion of male
babies to limit population growth.
For the Moriori the ancient totemic Creation myth of the Cosmogonic Tree is
fused with two Creation myths. One, common throughout Polynesia, begins with
the violent separation of Heaven and Earth, the tearing apart of Rangi, Sky Father,
from Papa, Earth Mother who are locked together in a smothering sexual embrace,
so that their children, trapped between them, are confined in darkness. Through the
separation of Rangi and Papa by the Sky-Propper, light and space are brought into
the world. The second Creation myth recounts the story of the creation of man by
the Sky-Propper.
The Moriori version of these myths is unique. The Sky-Propper does not call
upon his own power, as we find in most Polynesian versions of Tane as Creator, but
on the power of the Cosmogonic Tree, the Tree of Life. He does so first to prop up
the sky to give light and space to the Heaven Born (the children of Rangi and Papa)
and secondly to empower the creation of the first man. The Sky-Propper is the agent,
the Tree of Life is the source of power. There is a suggestion too that the ten props
with which the Sky-Propper separates Earth and Sky are not just his tools but also
represent and partake of the power of the Tree of Life.
The primacy of the power of the Cosmogonic Tree in the Moriori version of
the myth over a male creator suggests the antiquity of this version. It harks back
to early matriarchal versions of the myth involving a Creatrix. But it has a male
Creator instead of the female Creatrix that we find in still earlier versions in the
Spice Islands. The male Creator acts for, and to some extent represents, the Tree of
Life. In later Eastern Polynesian versions he effectively replaces the tree.
The stages in the evolution of the later form that was brought to New Zealand
by medieval Eastern Polynesian migrants are obvious. In the later form the SkyPropper has a name as well as a function. As Tane, the divine creator of trees
and god of forests, he uses his own power directly to prop up the sky and as
“divine potter” to create man from a clay image. Given that the later Creation myth
of the “divine potter” evolved from the myth of the Cosmogonic people-creating
17 The Mythological Context
in the Spice Islands, usually used by an old woman, the Creatrix, in the creation
of wives for young men. In time the Creatrix took on some of the power of the
Cosmogonic Tree itself which was thought of as fructifying all trees. The same path
of evolution in Eastern Polynesia leads to Tane, the god of forests and creator of
trees, taking into himself the creative power of the Cosmogonic Tree to separate
heaven and earth and bring light into the world, and to create man by breathing life
into the clay image he has made. In Eastern Polynesia the totemic myth evolves to
one involving a purposeful parentless Creator.
17.3 The Cosmogonic Tree in the Chatham Islands
Ironically the myth of the Cosmogonic Tree was preserved in the Chathams by
a people without horticulture. Entirely hunter/gatherers, the Moriori people of the
Chatham Islands were not concerned with promoting the fertility of land to raise
crops to feed a burgeoning population. Indeed they castrated a proportion of male
babies to limit population growth.
For the Moriori the ancient totemic Creation myth of the Cosmogonic Tree is
fused with two Creation myths. One, common throughout Polynesia, begins with
the violent separation of Heaven and Earth, the tearing apart of Rangi, Sky Father,
from Papa, Earth Mother who are locked together in a smothering sexual embrace,
so that their children, trapped between them, are confined in darkness. Through the
separation of Rangi and Papa by the Sky-Propper, light and space are brought into
the world. The second Creation myth recounts the story of the creation of man by
the Sky-Propper.
The Moriori version of these myths is unique. The Sky-Propper does not call
upon his own power, as we find in most Polynesian versions of Tane as Creator, but
on the power of the Cosmogonic Tree, the Tree of Life. He does so first to prop up
the sky to give light and space to the Heaven Born (the children of Rangi and Papa)
and secondly to empower the creation of the first man. The Sky-Propper is the agent,
the Tree of Life is the source of power. There is a suggestion too that the ten props
with which the Sky-Propper separates Earth and Sky are not just his tools but also
represent and partake of the power of the Tree of Life.
The primacy of the power of the Cosmogonic Tree in the Moriori version of
the myth over a male creator suggests the antiquity of this version. It harks back
to early matriarchal versions of the myth involving a Creatrix. But it has a male
Creator instead of the female Creatrix that we find in still earlier versions in the
Spice Islands. The male Creator acts for, and to some extent represents, the Tree of
Life. In later Eastern Polynesian versions he effectively replaces the tree.
The stages in the evolution of the later form that was brought to New Zealand
by medieval Eastern Polynesian migrants are obvious. In the later form the SkyPropper has a name as well as a function. As Tane, the divine creator of trees
and god of forests, he uses his own power directly to prop up the sky and as
“divine potter” to create man from a clay image. Given that the later Creation myth
of the “divine potter” evolved from the myth of the Cosmogonic people-creating