New Zealand: One tree hill used to have three trees
“Daddy, this is THREE Tree Hill! Look, two trees next to this were
cut. See?” My father shrugged at where I pointed. No one ever talked
about those two tree stumps. I always wondered why. One day, my
teacher assigned us a project to write our own Maori-style myth.
Maori myths had certain distinguishing features: There were
man-like-gods for everything. And they were amazing.
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I didn’t know why One Tree Hill had two stumps. So I told this story…
There were two young gods–Tane and Rangi. They made the forest before
Tane created man. Rangi fell in love with another goddess named Aroha
and wanted to build her a wooden hut in Tane’s forest. Tane was
horrified that Rangi should cut up the trees they had worked hard to
create. In a fit of rage, he turned Rangi and Aroha into small seeds.
He threw them far away at the top of the highest mountain. As years
past, Rangi and Aroha grew into strong trees and had a small child of
their own. Tane was not a forgiving god…and when he found out, he
chopped Aroha and her child. But not Rangi.
Though he tried, he was unsuccessful because Rangi was one of the original immortal gods. To an 11 year old, this simplistic story gave an entertaining explanation for the tree stumps. It was a myth for children. Later, when I grew up I learned that One Tree Hill was at the center of a protest for Maori
rights…an angry protestor tried to chop the tree in the middle of the
night. Luckily, he was stopped in time. The news was broken a few
years ago that after the attack on “Rangi”, my favourite tree was too
weak to continue to stand on its own. It became an accident risk. And
the decision was made to chop it down.
So much for my myth’s immortal god. Now the hill has three stumps and a tower. No Tree Hill.
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