Pūrākau: Tāne

Long ago, before humans walked the earth, the world was a noisy, chaotic place. The atua were always arguing and fighting each other. Thunder crashed, seas roared, and winds howled as they clashed.

Seeing this, Io, the supreme source of all life, stepped in. Io gave the atua a special mission: “Go and find the human element,” Io commanded. Io knew that the world needed kaitiaki to look after it and bring balance.

But the atua got a bit distracted! Instead of looking for humans, they began mating with one another, and their wild energy created the incredible natural world we see today. Tangaroa (atua of the sea) created the fish and ocean creatures. Tāne (atua of the forest) mated with Huna to create the flax bushes, and with Haereawa to create the beautiful takahē and pūkeko birds.

Even though the atua failed to find the human element, they had accidentally created a beautiful environment.

Now that the world was ready for humans, they needed something very important to help them live in this ao: knowledge. To get this, someone had to retrieve the three sacred kete of knowledge from the highest heavens: 

• Tuatea (The Black Kete): The knowledge of the physical world—things we already know and can see.
• Tuauri (The White Kete): The knowledge of the unseen—peace, love, and deep philosophy.
• Aronui (The Red Kete): The knowledge of how to actually use the first two baskets in daily life.

Tāne went to Io and offered to climb the 12 levels of the rangi to fetch them. The very first level is where we live today, and each level above it gets more and more sacred.

But Tāne wasn’t the only one who wanted the kete. His older brother, Whiro, wanted them too. “I will get the kete,” Whiro boasted, “but only for myself! Not for humans, and definitely not for my brothers and sisters.”

Io was not impressed by Whiro’s giant ego. Instead, Io chose Tāne and his siblings to go, because they worked as a team. Each sibling had an important job, like keeping time or saying karakia.

The climb was not easy. The siblings had to battle the fierce elements at every level. They had to cross incredibly narrow paths, survive freezing cold realms, and push through howling winds. To make matters worse, the jealous Whiro sent terrible plagues to stop them. First came a swarm of biting bugs, and then, he sent a horrible sickness: diarrhoea!

The mighty war god, Tūmatauenga (Tū), caught the sickness and became so weak he almost died. But his brother Rongo, the god of peace, used his special karakia to calm the illness and heal him. This is where we get the word rongoā from!

Thanks to Rongo, the team pushed on. They reached the eleventh level, and from there, Tāne had to brave the twelfth and final realm all by himself. He successfully gathered the three kete, but the mission wasn’t over. Tāne and his siblings had to face all those terrifying cold zones, winds, and bugs all over again on the way back down!

Finally, the siblings made it back to Earth and placed the sacred kete safely inside the wharenui. Suddenly, Whiro appeared, furious and ready to steal the knowledge for himself!

A great battle broke out. Outside the wharenui, Whiro fought fiercely against Tūmatauenga. To this day, the outside world is known as the “realm of Tūmatauenga”—a place of conflict and challenges. But Rongo stood firmly at the doorway of the wharenui. He barred Whiro from entering and banished him forever. Inside the wharenui became the “realm of Rongo”—a place of absolute peace and safety.

This ancient journey teaches us that the pursuit of knowledge is full of challenges, but we must never give up. Most importantly, it reminds us that knowledge isn’t truly “knowledge” until you climb back down from the mountain and share it with others.

Next time you walk inside a wharenui, look closely at the beautiful tukutuku on the walls. If you see a stepped pattern that looks like a staircase, that is the poutama pattern. It represents the 12 levels that Tāne climbed to bring education, peace, and wisdom down to all of us.