The updated website & IT infrastructure marks a new chapter in NZOA's tools for connecting & working. 

To celebrate what was a year long endeavour, with Ngā Rata Kōiwi's support we launched the new blog functionality with the Māori creation story.

It begins with nothingness (Te Kore). It is a long dark night. (Te Pō)

In the darkness of that long, black night, Ranginui, the Sky Father, held Papatuanuku, the earth Mother, in a close embrace & many sons were born to them.
The children lay cramped between their mother and father, some longing for the freedom to move and so they whispered of the idea to part their parents and explore what lay beyond.

Tūmatauenga (the God of war and man) said they should kill their parents, but others disagreed. They quarreled bitterly. Some tried to separate their parents, but could not. Eventually Tāne Mahuta lay his shoulders pressed on his mother, and placed his feet on his father's chest. He pushed, he pressed, he heaved and he struggled, but slowly, very  slowly, Ranginui was parted from Papatuanuku.

Ranginui wept as he looked down on his beloved wife far below him. His tears formed the rivers, lakes and oceans. And Papatuanuku grieved for her exiled husband. The early morning mists are her silent tears.

Light flooded into the world and for the first time the brothers looked upon their parents. Tāne Mahuta then clothed his grieving parents. He dressed Paptuanuku in tall, stately trees, ferns, flowers and vines. He dressed Ranginui with rainbows, clouds, stars, the silver moon and the golden sun.

Tāwhirimātea (the God of winds and storms) was sad and angry, he’d been against the separation. To show his unhappiness, he gouged out his eyes and threw them into the sky. These became the stars of Matariki-‘Ngā Mata o te Ariki o Tāwhirimātea” The Eyes of the God Tāwhirimātea. He left his brothers & went to live with his father in the sky. Tāwhirimātea continues to wage battle with his earthbound brothers battering them with storms and winds. Because he has no sight, he feels his way around using his forces of nature.

The brothers suffered from the inclement elements of wind, storms, and rain. Rongomātāne (The God of cultivated food) and Haumietiketike (The God of wild food) took refuge within Papatūānuku. The howling winds bent Tāne and his children. The seas were shaken up and some of the children of Tangaroa (the God of the ocean and everything within) were separated. Some stayed with their father in the moana and some moved to land to live in the realm of Tāne.

The youngest of the siblings, Rūaumoko was still within his mother when she was separated from Ranginui. His unhappiness shows itself when he burps, which form earthquakes and geological and geothermal activity.

And so it is today, when the rains fall, this is Ranginui still crying out for his beloved Papatuanuku.