Tawhirimatea

Tawhirimatea, god of winds and storms, is the one sibling who opposes the separation from the start, unwilling to see his parents torn apart from one another. When his brothers proceed regardless, Tawhirimatea follows his father Rangi up into the sky rather than remaining below with the others, and from there wages an ongoing campaign of storms and destructive weather against his brothers' domains, particularly the forests of Tane and the seas of Tangaroa, as an enduring expression of the anger and grief he feels at the forced separation. Tangaroa's own descendants are said to have fled Tawhirimatea's assaults by dividing, some becoming the fish that shelter in the sea and others, under Tane's protection, becoming the reptiles that live on land, an origin story tradition connects directly to this conflict between the storm god and his siblings.

Rangi and Papa themselves are said to continue grieving their separation to this day: Rangi's tears fall to earth as rain, and the mist that rises from Papa each morning is read as her sighs reaching up toward the husband she can no longer embrace. Their separation, while sorrowful for the parents themselves, is nonetheless what makes the ongoing life of the world possible, since it is only in the light and space opened between them that their children, and eventually humanity, are able to grow, multiply, and inhabit the world at all.