In Maori cosmological tradition, the sky father Ranginui and the earth mother Papatuanuku begin the world locked together in a close embrace, with no light or space between them, and their children, the gods who will come to govern the natural world, are born and grow crushed in the cramped darkness of that embrace. The children debate what should be done about their parents' unbroken closeness. Several favor killing Rangi and Papa outright to gain freedom and light, but Tane, god of forests and birds, argues instead for forcing his parents apart rather than destroying them, a proposal the others eventually accept.
One by one, several of the brothers attempt the separation and fail. Rongo, god of cultivated food, tries and cannot move his parents; Tangaroa, god of the sea, and Haumia, god of wild-growing food, each try in turn with no more success; Tumatauenga, god of war and humankind, tries as well and also fails, a failure later tradition connects to his subsequent turn toward warring against his own siblings instead. Tane alone succeeds, and does so by changing his approach entirely: rather than pushing with his arms and hands as his brothers had, he turns onto his back, plants his powerful legs against the sky, and pushes upward with his legs, gradually levering Ranginui away from Papatuanuku until light floods into the space between them for the first time.