Ranginui is the sky father of the Maori cosmogony, who lies above Papatuanuku the earth mother; their children live in the darkness between them until Tane separates them, and Rangi's grief at the separation is the rain and the dew. The account is recorded in Grey's Polynesian Mythology (1855) and in Maori oral tradition. The sky and the stars are his, and the rain is his tears. He is the father of the gods and of the people in the genealogy.
Modern Practice
Rangi is greeted in the karakia and in the mihimihi, and the practice is the naming of the sky and the land and the relation between them. The rain is his, and the stars are his. The greeting is the offering.