Mythologies of the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu. It has a land area of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi), and a population of about 700,000. Its capital, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands (a part of Papua New Guinea), but excludes outlying islands, such as the Santa Cruz Islands and Rennell and Bellona.
According to the mythology of the Solomon Islands, there was once a time when the waters flooded the Earth. This great flood, the Ruarua, engulfed all of the islands, even the 4,000 feet high San Cristoval hills; those drowned in it turned into stone pillars, which can still be seen at Mwata. It was Umaroa, leader of the Muara clan, who saved his people by taking them, a sacred stone, and pairs of all the animals on board a great canoe. When the waters receded, Umaroa made landfall at Waimarai in the Arosi district, and offered a sacrifice in thanks. From there an adaro descended from a rainbow and guided them to their new home. Umaroa is now buried there, and his sacred stone was laid on top of him. The area is now rich with magic, and visitors have to observe certain rules to avoid bad luck. Any trees cut down and left there will cause the lumberjacks to wander in circles, always returning to the cut tree. If there is a rainbow above the river, it cannot be crossed without making an offering to the adaro first. Names have particular strength there; ropes cannot be called ari but instead must be referred to as kunikuni (“to let down”), otherwise snakes will be summoned immediately.
According to the mythology of the Solomon islands in the Pacific Ocean, a person’s spirit is divided into two parts. There is the good part, the Aunga, which dies when the person dies, and then there is the Adaro, which stays behind after death to haunt the seas as a ghost. These aquatic ghosts are usually described as humanlike, but with gills behind the ears, fins for feet and a horn that resembles the dorsal fin of a shark. On its forehead is another horn that resembles the tooth of a swordfish. It is said that Adaro kill fishermen by launching flying fish at their victims.
Tiola and the Origin Story of Nguzunguzu
This is the story of Tiola, a banara (chief) in Solomon Islands mythology and the origin of the nguzunguzu, canoe prow figureheads used by the islands’ tribes. Chief Tiola was from Nduke, Kolombangara and had five brothers: Veonona, Serekateu, Nakovalaka, Heleveni, and Hiakalozi. They all came out of a cave shaped like a vagina. At the entrance to this cave was a rock shaped like a penis – this is where the brothers came from. But they came out as adults, not babies. They walked out of the cave, and lived in the area. The cave is still on Nduke. Veonona was a good chief, a good banara (banara leana), Heleveni was a bad banara (banara kaleana), Serekateu was a clever banara (banara roverove), Nakovalaka had magical powers (tie ruparupaha) that allowed him to solve problems (and was also good at arts and crafts), and Heleveni was the banara who started sacrificial ceremonies.
Kahausibware is a serpentine female spirit and primeval creator goddess revered in the Solomon Islands. She was a Hi’ona—a powerful supernatural being who created the world. According to myth, Kahausibware created pigs, cocoa-nut trees, and fruit trees. Having created food, she then created animals and humans to use it.
The youngest of a family of brothers, Warohunugamwanehaora is born and grows to adulthood all in one day. His brothers fear and envy him for his cleverness and strength and under the guidance of the oldest brother, Warohunugaraiia, they try several times to kill him. The first time, they trick Warohunugamwanehaora into a deep hole and drop a post on him, but when they turn around there he is, sitting on top of the pole. Then they try sending him against various vicious animals—a giant clam, a man-eating fish, a wild boar—hoping he will be killed, but each time Warohunugamwanehaora is victorious and when they arrive home he is sitting there waiting for them. Next they try magic, sending the young man up a betel tree and enchanting the tree to become so tall that he will never be able to get back. But Warohunugamwanehaora causes the tree to bend down until it touches the ground in front of his house and again, when the brothers arrive home there he is awaiting them.
Kakamora, a mythical population of elf-like creatures in the tradition of Makira and Guadalcanal (Solomon islands).
The Solomon Islands comprise a double chain of seven large and more than thirty small islands, located just east of New Guinea. The islands were named in 1568 by the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendaña, who claimed that he had found the riches of King Solomon, or the biblical land of gold. The main islands, which are volcanic in origin, are Choiseul, Santa Isabel, Malaita, New Georgia, Guadalcanal, Makira (San Cristobal), and Santa Cruz. The islands have an estimated population of 455,000. The island of Bougainville, located to the northwest of Choiseul, is geographically and ethnically a part of the Solomon Islands, but politically belongs to the nation of Papua New Guinea.
The dugong, or ia tekwa in the Lau language, is a taboo animal for the people of Bailangi and Buni tribes. For ages, it has been forbidden to eat dugong. This taboo is based on a legend of a woman, who jumps into the sea and changes into a dugong. Since then, people of the two tribes have refrained from eating dugong. Not only that: relatives who ate the marine mammal after the incident suffered from swollen feet and painful bodies. “The woman who changed into a Dugong was from a place called Bailangi. She got married to a man from Gwaihareko. The girl got married to the boy after several attempts of the boy’s parent to find a bride for their son failed.
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