Edwin G. Burrows
publishes his studies
of the mythology of
the people of the
Ifaluk Atoll.Stanley Breeden and
Belinda Wright’s Kakadu
includes the Aboriginal
“Dreamtime” my t holog y.Ronald and Catherine
Berndt’s The Speaking
Land records the
Aboriginal myth
of Luma-Luma.John Flenley and Paul
Bah record the Rapa
Nui creation myth
in The Enigmas of
Easter Island.In Déma, Jan van Baal
records the myths
and beliefs of the
Marind people.Michael Connolly’s
Dreamtime Kullilla
traces the heritage
of Aboriginal
communities.who broke out of his shell to bring
everything into being. Creation
myths also explore the birth of
humanity. In the Maori tradition,
Tane—a forest god who appears
across many Polynesian cultures—
made mankind by breathing life
into sand and mud. In Easter Island
myths, Makemake, the god of sea
birds, created life by ejaculating
into clay, while Papuan myths
say that humans were originally
featureless fish that were shaped
into people by ancestral deities
called the déma.Myths of the islanders
The island geography of Oceania
has a big influence on its stories.
The Micronesian myth of Aluluei,
for example, emphasizes the
importance of navigation and
exploration. The trickster god Mauiappears in many Polynesian myths;
as a mighty fisherman who hauled
whole islands up from the ocean
floor, he is credited with the
mythical origin of Hawaii and New
Zealand, where fishing was central
to island life. In Maori lore, New
Zealand’s North Island is the fish
Maui caught, and the South Island
is his canoe.Oral tradition
The myths of Oceania are based on
ancient oral poetic tradition. This
was often closely bound up with
indigenous religion, as priests were
frequently the repository of myths.
Their stories were preserved down
the generations through prodigious
feats of memorization.
Remembering these tales was
essential because many of them
established the genealogy of afamily or clan. The Maori trace their
ancestry back to the canoe that
brought their first ancestors to New
Zealand, and Papuan tribes link
themselves to their ancestral
deities, the déma. Myth also
helped to establish the mana—an
important concept in Oceania,
meaning “power” or “prestige”—of
individuals or places, as well as
recording what was taboo.
Oceania’s myths were also
central to the preservation of ritual.
In the story of Luma-Luma, for
example, the giant taught sacred
rites to the Gunwinggu people of
northern Australia before they
killed him. Tales such as this began
to be transcribed by European
anthropologists during the 19th
century, but were originally recited
to audiences, learned and passed
on as a sacred ceremonial duty. ■OCEANIA
1964 1989 2003
1966 1989 2009
301
Alfred Métraux
studies the history of
the Rapa Nui people
of Easter Island.1940
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