| Description |
Missing/no yellow sticker; The cover indicates "Maewo History"; Side 1: Maewo Talau Clan History FND/203; Side 2: Blank
Unknown storyteller on 3/6/1977 about History of Maewo.
Long long time ago, people in Maewo had no trouble, no fighting, no marriage but still had children but no from marriage so just a carefree place. There was a woman called ‘Ngotuasdan’ from a place called Gurua who went to the seaside to fetch water for cooking. She discovered that there were two young children, a boy, and a girl both with light skinned complexion. She was not sure whether they were humans or ghosts, so she asked them, and they confirmed to be her they were humans. She asked them where they come from, and the boy answered that they floated ashore from Tikopia (Tikopia is a Polynesian outliner island in Melanesia located north of Vanuatu and east of Solomon Islands so in Solomon Islands eastern border to Vanuatu).
She asked for their names and the boy answered he was Tawawae and his sister was Rowoewoe. She invited them and took them home to Gurua. She brought them and hid them inside her house and closed the door. Later she took them out of the house and to the surprise of her sister, she asked where these two had come from and was told that they drifted ashore from Tikopia. The husband then embraced them into the family and treated as an uncle. He taught the Tawawae about the making of the bows attached with ropes to use with arrows. He was ready to shoot at a white pig, but it is forbidden for people from Tikopia as they can have boils, sores if they eat it. So, they did not kill the pig and later it had many piglets.
The uncle then brought Tawawae to the ‘nakamal’ (traditional meeting place for ceremonies and drinking kava) where they killed a pig to feed him as custom and re-named the boy, ‘Sale’ which means floating ashore. Sale grew up into an adult and since history there was no such thing as marriage however this now is the first time to arrange this, so he got married to his wife, Laumai. They lived in their seaside home and later had a child.
This became the marriage structure of with two sides being inter-marriage is from the husband (man) side and wife (woman) side so the offspring from marriage will follow into the future. The example of their child Liu belong to the wife side and Asu was the side of Tawawae from his brother-sister bloodline.
This was also a time of change in the history of Maewo where customs, traditions, and cultural practices began to evolve and changes happening to the society such as people from outside like Tikopia arriving had some influence too in the way of life.
(Steven Gagau, April 2024) |
