Tane and Rongo

One day in a place with trees, flowers and other plants sat strong Tane, the god of the Forest watching his plants grow, when suddenly the ground started to rumble and out came a machine. Soon people came out to talk to Tane. Tane was confused and asked them, “What are you doing in my Forest?” The people replied, “I am sorry sir but we have to cut down the Forest for expensive buildings”. Tane was surprised and went to ask his brother Rongo, the god of peace for help. Rongo was a quiet, tall ,working, orange god that was really good at solving problems and making peace so all his brothers and sisters were always asking him for help. Tane had koru eyes, was caring, strong and took care of the forest really well.

Tane told Rongo what had happened and Rongo wanted to help because he knew how hard his brother had worked to keep the forest going. The next day when the people were back Rongo went to talk to them. The people said that they were going to start chopping trees down in a week. When Tane heard this he went to a nearby tree and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed because all his loved things were going to be taken away.

Two days before they were going to start digging, Rongo and Tane had a meeting to try and solve the problem. In that meeting Tane suggested to defeat the machine so that the humans couldn’t do anything but Rongo didn’t think that that would be a peaceful and kind way to solve the problem. After a few minutes of thinking Rongo came up with an idea, but when he was about to say it they heard a machine rumbling. They ran outside to see a human about to cut down the first tree. Tane ran up and said, “Man, why are you starting today, you said that you were going start cutting on Saturday!” The Man replied, “Sorry, but we have received a message from the mayor and he said to start today.” and he kept on cutting. Suddenly the tree hit the ground but Tane healed it and the tree came back up and started to live again. The Man ran away in fright and they went back to their meeting.

Rongo carried on and said, “We should make a treaty with them. It is a peaceful and easy way to solve problems.I have used it lots of times and it has always worked.” Tane agreed. The next day when the people came, Rongo went to see them and make the treaty. The people said hello and everything and then Rongo made his announcement, “People of New Zealand, my brother, Tane has worked very hard to keep this forest going and when he heard that you were going to destroy it he wept and wept and wept and came to get me for help. So, please brothers will you make a treaty with us?” The men didn’t know that Tane wanted to keep the forest. One of the men replied, “No need. We didn’t know that Tane wanted the forest. We can go somewhere else. In fact our boss didn’t even want this site he wanted a old worn out one instead of a bright new lovely one with living things in it. We will move and do our thing there.”

Tane was shocked when he heard about this but very happy that he and his forest was safe again. He thanked Rongo and then lived happily ever after in the Forest. The Moral of this story is to always go with a kind and peaceful plan instead of a plan that destroys things because sometimes things will go better than the plan.