Tuanuku
Papa, the earth, is sometimes alluded to as Tuanuku or Nuku. In a reply to a greeting upon arriving at a village, the principle man of the visitors would say, "Na Rangi taua, na Tuanuku e takato nei; ko ahau tenei, ko Mea a Mea." (We are both from Rangi and Tuanuku (Sky Father and Earth Mother). It is I, So-and-so, offspring of So-and-so.) See also Papa-tū-a-nuku.
❧
References
Source
- Best, Elsdon. (1924). The Maori. Wellington: Harry H. Tombs, pp. 174, 371.