In The Beginning

In this story we hear where root vegetables (tubars) and root spices came from and how people with good and evil hearts are separated.

The god Ameta finds a coconut one day, he plants it and a lovely girl Hainuwele (coconut girl) grows from the ground. She has the amazing gift of being able to poo precious items. This instills jealousy amongst the villagers who decide to get rid of Hainuwele. She becomes the root of all root plants...

In this story we learn how the earth is created and how domestic relationships sometimes have to be managed.

In the beginning there is nothing but water. Silver Fox is lonely and thinks Coyote into being. Together they sing the world into existence and go down to live on it. They live in harmony together except for the fact that Coyote is always hungry and Silver Fox keeps going out to get things to eat but he gobbles everything up...

These are two stories form ancient China describing how the world was created and how humans were made.

In the beginning there is nothing but a cosmic egg.  Pangu emerges from this egg and the upper part becomes Yin the sky and lower part becomes Yang the earth. He begins to form the earth with the help of Phoenix, Dragon and Tortoise but becomes exhausted and his body becomes the earth itself. Later, Nuwa a goddess with a fish tai...

This story is from the Māori people explaining how the earth and the sky were separated so that light could enable forests and plants to grow, followed by animals and humans. 

In the beginning there is nothing but the cosmos. Rangi (Ranginui) the sky father and Papatua (Papatūānuku) the earth mother hold each other in a tight embrace. Papatua gives birth to 70 sons who are caught between their mother and father with very little spa...

This story from Estonia describes how the amazing milky white group of stars we call the Milky Way (or bird path in Estonian) came from the adventurous goddess Lindu's wedding veil, carried by birds

The goddess Lindu lives in the sky with her father Uru. She loves adventure and can't stay still for long. Uru sends her down to earth to look after the birds. The North Star, Moon and Sun propose to her but she thinks they’re all too b...

These two stories from the Yoruba people describe how humans were created, the coming of a great flood and how Oshun, the goddess of fertility made sure women have a voice.

The Orishas are the gods who live in the sky. Obatala (creator of mankind) decides to go down to create the earth - he is given a gold chain, a shell, a hen and a black cat. He then attempts to makes humans but gets drunk on palm wine and makes them all wonky. H...

This story from the Taíno people begins with a great flood forcing everyone to hide in caves, even the Sun and the Moon. This story explains why the Sun and the Moon rise and set at different times.

In the beginning there is a great flood. Many people hide in caves to escape the flood and so do the Sun and the Moon. The Sun kicks the Moon out as there isn’t enough space in the cave they are sharing. The moon goes up to the sky and ...

This story from the Maya people explains how humans were created out of corn after several attempts using different materials and how the creator gods Tepeu and Gucumatz made sure that humans did not have the constant access to supernatural vision.

Gucamatz (The Maker and Tapeau (The Feathered spirt) imagine the world, plants and animas into being. As supreme beings they need to be worshiped so they try to get the animals to praise...

This story from the Fang people is about the creation of the first human Fam who was given absolute power. This power went to his head as he destroyed the earth and disrespected the other animals that have been created.

In the beginning Membere (who is 3 gods in one) creates elephant, leopard and monkey and then decides to create man to rule over them, the first man is called Fam and he is given ultimate power over the animals as w...