The Mythology Book

328

C

ommunal rites known as

the Work of the Gods

bound Tikopian society

together at every level—mythology,

religion, community values, social

status, economics, and simple

survival. The rites were said to

have been instituted by Saku, the

hero of the people of Tikopia, a tiny

Pacific island. Saku (whose name

was a sacred taboo, so never

uttered) was the son of Asoaso, a

Kafika chief, and a woman from

neighboring Faea. Born some

generations after the first creator

gods brought the island into being

and at a time when their successors

exercised dangerous supernatural

powers, Saku established order

and consolidated the power of the

Kafika, one of Tikopia’s four clans.

Saku clothed the island people,

and by doing so awoke their human

consciousness, giving them minds

with which to acquire knowledge.

He also made the sacred adzes

(axelike tools), whose blades were

traditionally fashioned from the

shell of the giant clam. At that time,

everything in the world had a voice,

even the trees and the rocks, but

Saku ordered them to be silent. He

then commanded the rocks to form

a pile, and the earth to cover it,

creating a platform on which the

Kafika temple could be raised.

Asserting his authority

Saku had a friend and rival whose

powers were similar to his own.

The man—Te Samoa—was said to

have come to Tikopia from Samoa,

more than 1,243 miles (2,000 km)

away. In friendly contests, the two

men pitted their skill and speed in

planting and harvesting crops, for

example, but Saku was usually the

winner. The rivalry grew more

intense, however, when they began

MAPUSIA AND THE WORK OF THE GODS

IN BRIEF

THEME

Gods and society

SOURCE

Oral tradition, transcribed by

Raymond Firth in The Work of

the Gods in Tikopia, 1940;

History and Traditions of

Tikopia, 1961; Tikopia Ritual

and Belief, 1967; Rank and

Religion in Tikopia, 1970;

and Tikopia Songs, with

Mervyn McLean, 1990.

SETTING

Tikopia, Solomon Islands.

KEY FIGURES

Saku Hero and, as Mapusia,

supreme god.

Te Samoa Companion and

rival of Saku.

Te Sema Saku’s killer.

Atua Fafine Ancestral

goddess of Tikopia.

Atua i Raropuka Ancestral

god of Tikopia.

Kafika, as a habitation and

a name, was the prize for

which the aspirants for

leadership strove.

History and Traditions

of Tikopia

Tikopia

A mere 1.9 sq miles (5 sq km),

Tikopia is part of the Solomon

Islands of Melanesia, but its

culture is essentially Polynesian.

Although the first Europeans

arrived here more than 400

years ago, until the 1980s, there

were no stores, electricity, or

motor vehicles. A strong belief

in the gods flourished in this

remote place, whose inhabitants

always felt they were at the

mercy of the elements. When

New Zealand anthropologist

Raymond Firth first went there

in 1928, the island’s population

was about 1,200. Firth became

fascinated by the culture of

Tikopian society—at that time

quite untouched by Western

ideas—and wrote 10 books and

numerous articles about the

island people.

When Firth died in 2002, the

president of the Polynesian

Society, Sir Hugh Kawharu, paid

tribute to him with a lament,

which included the promise:

“Your spirit is still alive among us,

we who have become separated

from you in New Zealand, Tikopia,

and elsewhere.”

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329

Chiefs of Tikopia meet with officers

from the French ship Astrolabe. The

explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville and his

men visited the islands of Polynesia in

an expedition from 1826 to 1829.

to build the Kafika temple. Saku

felled a great tree to create the

temple’s supporting post and dug a

deep pit to set it in. He jumped in

and asked Te Samoa to lower the

base of the tree into the pit. Saku

had worked out how to escape

between its roots to avoid being

crushed, and was able to climb out.

Now it was Te Samoa’s turn to

jump in and dig, but Saku promptly

moved the trunk so that his rival

was trapped. Te Samoa begged to

be released, but Saku rammed in

earth around the post, burying him.

Saku’s strength was legendary.

When his mother’s relatives in the

village of Faea asked him to cut

palm fronds for thatching their

roofs, he uprooted a whole sago

palm—a tree that stands around

82 ft (25 m) tall. Another time, he

asked the people of Faea if he could

take some seedlings of taro, a root

crop, to plant on his own land. They

agreed, but instead of seedlings, he

seized the entire plantation of taro.

Rising to the heavens

When Saku tried to appropriate his

neighbor’s land and plant crops

there, however, the neighbor’s

family joined forces against him.

Saku was killed by the youngest

son—Te Sema—whose name

means “the left-handed one.”

According to the myth, Saku’s

death was divinely ordained. His

spiritual mother, the goddess Atua

Fafine, had advised Saku to leave

the earth rather than use his great

strength to kill Te Sema. She and

the deity Atua i Raropuka were the

ancestral gods of Tikopia. In the

earliest times, when the island

was pulled up from the sea, the two

deities were already sitting on the

ground. Atua Fafine was weaving a

mat of pandanus leaf, while Atua i

Raropuka braided a mat of coconut

fiber—both traditional island crafts.

Just as Atua Fafine had planned,

Saku’s acceptance of death meant

that he arrived among the gods

unpolluted. As a result, he could

say to each god, “Give me your

mana”—that is, their supernatural

powers. After this, he was renamed

Mapusia and became the most

powerful of the gods, feared and

appeased by the people of Tikopia.

Supreme power

The name Mapusia was taboo

except in certain rituals invoking

the god’s help. “When I utter his

name he hears in the heavens and

bends over to listen to what is

being said,” runs one traditional

Tikopian song. He was called Te

Atua i Kafika (“the Deity of Kafika”)

by the clan as a whole, or Toku

See also: Fire and rice 226–27 ■ The killing of Luma-Luma 308–09 ■ Maui of a thousand tricks 320–23

OCEANIA

Ariki Tapu “My Sacred Chief” by

the Ariki Kafika (head of the clan).

He was also Te Atua Fakamataku,

“the Fear-Causing Chief,” who

created thunder by clattering his

staff from side to side in the sky.

Mapusia was regarded as the

god above all others by the people

of Tikopia. As the anthropologist

Raymond Firth was told, “No god

can come and supplant him; he is

high because he is strong.” The ❯❯

Because [Saku] had

power below here,

when he died he

went to the gods

and was lofty

among the gods.

History and Traditions

of Tikopia

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